The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (24 page)

“Morning, Love,” the voice seeps through the water like sobering tonic and my stomach immediately falls as I notice the arm draped over my tailfin. I turn, realising I don’t know where I am or how I got here. Or how Vex got here either.

“What the hell are you doing here? Get off me!” I squirm to get away from him before another shock hits me. My tailfin, no longer aquamarine, is now onyx like everything that surrounds me. The aquamarine lightning, forking across the scales, interrupting the darkness is now the only reminder of what was. I look down at my nails, black and hardened into claws. I recoil in horror. “You turned me! Oh my God!”

“No, I didn’t!”

“Well then why do I look this?!”
 

“I don’t bloody know, but I didn’t bite you. Don’t flatter yourself,” he looks offended and I want to laugh,
He’s offended?! Really?!
 

“What are you doing here then?” I put my hands on my hip, head still throbbing, that however seems to be the least of my problems.

“You passed out so I brought you back with me. I didn’t think you’d appreciate waking up and finding yourself being tortured by Caedes,” he cocks an eyebrow and purses his lips as his eyes look over me hungrily. I bring my palms up to cover my breasts impatiently.

“I don’t suppose you remember what happened last night then? If you’re so sure you didn’t bite me?” I attack him, feeling rage surging through me, causing the thudding in my head to get worse as I grit my teeth.

“We danced,” he turns from his side to his back on the floor of the cave we’re suspended in. The only light in the room are some kind of red bioluminescent worms that are packed into jars and stood on rock shelves that jut out of the barren, dark walls.

“That’s it?”

“Well, it got a tad naughty, but we didn’t kiss if that’s what you’re implying. I don’t do that.”

“What do you mean, you don’t do that?”

“I don’t do the kissing thing. Not my style.”
 

“Right. So you didn’t bite me? Did anyone else?”

“Nah Love, you were pretty pre-occupied with me, if I do say so myself. You’re way more twisted than I would have thought. You should have heard the way you were begging me to…”
 

“Shut up!” I yell out remembering suddenly what it was I had been begging for.
 

“Ahhh… and so the Princess returns. Different packaging sure… but still a priss. You’d better get on finding your inner darkness Love, you so can’t rock that look with your prudishness.”

“I said shut up,” I move over to a cracked mirror, lying on top of a rotting armoire in the corner of the room. It’s fractured but I can still see enough of my reflection to know that my appearance has totally changed. My scaled eye mask is still intact, though now it’s black. My hair is black like coal and my eyes are black too, just like Solustus’ and Titus’. I feel fear creeping in at my own appearance. I part my lips but my teeth are just the same as they’ve always been, not jagged or serrated. It doesn’t make any sense. None of the other Psiren’s have eye masks, and they all have jagged razor sharp teeth. So why don’t I? If I really was a Psiren now why wasn’t I showing all the traits?

“I look so…” I start and Vex cuts me off.

“Hot,” he says the word and I turn to glower at him. “Hey don’t get all bitchy on me now, Love, it’s a bit late to pretend like you’re not interested in this, isn’t it?” He gestures towards his abs and I feel the urge to be sick clutch at my insides.
 

“God, you’re such a pig,” I snap at him.

“Yeah, I hear that a lot,” he smiles at me, clearly not giving a crap about what I think.

“Must be true then,” I shoot back. I move toward the exit of the cave, curious as to where I am. I get to the opening and can see that I’m in the rock wall that curves around the outside of the Cryptopolis. The white neon light from the clouds of jellyfish aren’t that far above me as I am high up in the cliff. I notice as I look down from this angle that the light from above is casting shadows, exposing that there are many more caves hidden in the rock face, no doubt housing the rest of the Psiren army within.

“Better be going… training starts soon,” I hear Vex call from within the cave. I feel him come up behind me. The way the water swirls is unnatural, due to his tentacles, “Later, Pet.” He whispers, moving past me and brushing my shoulder blade with his thumb as he passes. I shudder and I can almost hear him smirk. He moves out into the water, descending slowly as his tentacles bloom out as he gets close to the ground. I settle on the ledge of the cave, lowering myself to watch them, secluded from view as darkness now cloaks me to invisibility with my black features. I watch as more Psiren’s emerge out of their caves, slinking silently, red faced and irritable, clearly coming down from the high we’d all felt during the rave last night… or was it day? I couldn’t tell without the sun.

“Cal?” A voice so familiar slaps me back into the moment and my head snaps around. In a cave entrance next to the one I’m sat in, a distorted but familiar face is peering at me from within the smoky shadows of the water.

“Daryl?” I gape, mouth hanging open in surprise… no… better word: shock.

“It’s Darius now,” he moves forward toward me, his body phasing at the waist into that of a great white shark.

“What the hell happened to you?” I look him up and down and he smiles at my shock, approval in the eyes which were once all-American baby blue.

“You could say I’ve evolved... you know, like those birds they taught us about, with that Darwin dude in biology.” I gawk at him, still unsure how to react. The last time I’d seen Daryl… or Darius, or whoever the hell he is, he was trying to assault me in Chloe’s beach house after I’d caught him with Mollie.

“You could say that. You shouldn’t want to be a Psiren though Daryl. It’s not exactly a step up,” I cock my head and he snorts slightly, looking cockier than his human self, if that’s at all possible.

“You can talk, you look just like us.”

“But I’m not one of you. At least I don’t think I am. I don’t want to be anyway,” I sigh and shake my head. He’s staring at me and his brow is creased, dark pupils expanded outwards in the dim lighting, with blue lightning streaking through them.

“You look like one of us though. I mean, you were bitten right? They did the thing with the mixing of your blood?” He runs his hand through his hair, no longer the caramel brown it had once been, it’s inky strands slip through his fingers, slick like they’ve been dipped in oil.

“No, I wasn’t bitten.”

“Could have fooled me the way you were letting that guy at your neck last night,” he smirks and I scowl.

“Shut up. You’re just jealous.”

“Why would I be jealous of mister tentacles? Everyone knows I’m mother’s favourite… and I’m not even one of hers. I don’t even know why you like him. Is it the British accent?”

“Mother?”
 

“Yes, Alyssa, she made nearly all of the Psirens here. Well, the new ones anyway.”
 

“Alyssa?” I repeat the name, something about it is familiar but I can’t quite place it. Daryl blows bubbles out into the water in frustration.

“Yes. Alyssa. You know I remember you seeming a lot smarter when we were human.”

“Shut up,” I say the words, his rudeness is making my blood boil.

“So you never said, what is it exactly that attracts you to the British scumbag down there?” Daryl jerks his chin to Vex who is below us, still waiting for training to begin. He looks down his nose at him and I wonder where the hell he gets off looking down on anyone. He’s just a child in a big man’s suit.

“I’m not attracted to him. We were just having fun,” I shrug and he smirks.

“I always said you were a tease, Pierce. Well I had better warn him what he’s in for with you,” he moves to begin his descent toward the courtyard in front of the Necrocazar, but I’m quicker and move with one slash of my charred tailfin, grabbing Daryl by the throat, reminding him of who he’s dealing with.

“Excuse me? I didn’t quite catch that?” I feel the electricity I had been able to muster recently prickling beneath my flesh, I taunt him with it, learning control of the ability in moments, sending his neurons firing like an execution squad, lethal and precise.

“Shit,” I hear the guttural exclamation pass from his lips before I slam his head back into the rock face from which we’ve come.

“What did you say? About me being a tease? I’d say let’s go all the way Daryl, really I would, but I don’t think you can handle it,” I let another pulse of electricity loose on his nervous system and he struggles against my grip, choking for breath as I cover his gills with my fingers, forcing them shut.

“Don’t you like that? Maybe you shouldn’t lust after women you can’t handle!” I bite out the words, letting free one last pulse of electricity into his body, before slamming his skull into the wall.
 

I release his throat from my clawed grasp and watch him fall through the water to the ground of crushed bones and dead things, where he belongs. I can see that the eyes of the Psiren army from below are on me, including those of Solustus.

“You want to screw with me?! I invite any of you to try, I’m only too willing to teach all of you the same lesson. I’m not the kind of girl you fuck with. Not anymore.” I yell the sentiment out to them, hearing the loudness of my voice reverberating back at me from the walls of the deep sea cave. I feel the power of my ability to cause pain flowing through me, making me untouchable. As I turn to move back into the darkness of the cave I hear Vex’s British tone reach me.

“Well what do you know, there’s hope for Little Miss Priss yet.”

SOLUSTUS

The girl moves, turning around and retreating back into the cave from which she came. I can’t quite get my mind around the concept of what I am seeing, she now not only acts with the power of my predecessor, but also looks like one of us, a poor imitation to be sure, but the darkness within her is evident and clearly ill-controlled.
 

The fodder turns toward me, their eyes are wide, unsure of what I expect from them. I wonder why they’re such mindless, pathetic drones. I look over to the crumpled body of Darius, the boy I made to undo Miss Callie Pierce, limp among the bones of things too weak to survive among us. Well I suppose he is where he belongs. The fodder takes my looking to his defeated form as instruction to go and help him, but I give a warning look.

“No! He doesn’t deserve our help. He was bested by a little girl, no more, no less. Let him rot,” I snap and they nod. “Today I want you to pair up and fight one another until one of you is dead. Remember, it is not waste if you learn something and we can always make more of you. You are utterly and completely replaceable. So, fight well and you’ll make it to training tomorrow. A gift in itself. The knowledge I’m imparting is the most valuable thing you will find down here,” I issue the order and watch Vexus begin to move. “Not you Vexus. You’re coming with me,” I gesture for him to follow with a long bony finger, moving with all the speed I can muster back up into my throne room. I wish to observe the fighting from up high, so I can look down on them as they struggle to survive under my command. The boy lags behind me, making it to the throne room at the pace of a one legged tortoise. Pitiful.

“By all means, move at a glacial pace. I’m not getting any older, just impatient and irritated, that’s not something you want,” I seep sarcasm but Vexus remains impassive in his features. I look into his eyes and wonder what it would take for me to instil some fear into their hideous lilac depths. Probably not a lot, but this boy has been surprising me lately. Especially now that I know of his connection with the girl, something which my own prodigy has clearly failed to capture.
 

I move to the window to observe the fighting. “Come,” I invite him to hover next to me, generous as always.

“Why did you want to see me?” Vexus asks, looking back over his shoulder, suspicious. I feel sort of proud, as though his paranoia is a sign that I’m succeeding in my teachings. He doesn’t trust anyone, least of all me and that’s exactly what makes him easily manipulated. Someone who can’t trust is alone, and someone alone is weak. Everyone knows that.

“I wanted to congratulate you on your relationship with the girl, this proves most useful to me. I am pleased,” at these words I expect him to look surprised but he doesn’t, he just stares out the window.

“It was nothing. I just took her to a party. Gave her a little lionfish venom.” I look over at him,
Lionfish venom?
Well that explains why half my army was turning up looking like they’d spent the night in a barroom brawl. It was because they had.

“Party?” I ask him with an eyebrow raised. I know the Psiren’s in my city aren’t on duty 24/7 but I didn’t assume they actually had
lives.
It startles me, the idea of unity among their ranks. They aren’t supposed to have minds of their own, connections with each other. They have two purposes and those are to kill and die… it is only a question of when and how.

“Yeah.”