The unexpected and sublime sensation was soimmediate and intense that he sincerely forgot what he was doing. That they were actually in the middle of the ocean and under a violent attack.
Until the sea monster rose up and slapped him hard with one slimy, nasty tentacle. That stinging blow brought him out of his stupor and reminded him of their imminent threat.
And his own place in the world.
He was here to slay.
Slamming his fists against the waves, he summoned his powers and felt them wash through his body like lava. Thick and hot. They contrasted sharply with the cold seawater.
The huge sharklike octopus beast bared its fangs at him as it turned away from the ship to attack Kalder full frontal. Aye, he had its ugly attention now. Full on. Complete and utter.
The stench of it was tantamount to a rotting corpse that had lain for weeks in the sun. It hung in the air and choked him as the beast came about for another attack.
“That’s it, me smelly friend. Come get some.”
He shot a fiery blast at the creature that caught it across the face. It recoiled from the fire and dove under the waves. TheSea Witchturned in the water to head back in their direction and render support to him. Her long nines rolled into place while their aeromages scrambled for assault. The sound of metal scraping against the wood rolled like thunder over the ocean and caused Kalder’s blood to pound with delight at the smell of war. This was what he loved most in this blackened world.
The fight. The blood.
The massacre.
Except for one thing.
Back in the day, balling had been the sole activity he’d partaken in more than brawling. So much so that his parents had threatened to harpoon him to the wall of his bedroom if he didn’t learn to restrain himself from the company of loose human women. While it’d been oft said that the females of his people were seductresses sent to lure mortal men to their doom, he’d argued that human women were much more attractive than any mermaid ever born. For he could normally turn away even the most beautiful of Myrcians.
Put a human woman in front of him…
His breeches had fallen straight to his ankles as if controlled by magic. He’d been more wanton than any harlot imaginable. And yet with all those women he’d never known real desire or hunger.
Until Cameron Jack.
It was why he shouldn’t have come back here, he realized as he saw her standing on deck with the others, and he felt a rising panic at the thought of her being harmed in this fight.
Or worse, her being taken again by their enemies.
I kill everything I love.
Just like his father. The only thing that had saved Kalder from his family’s curse in the past was the fact that his father hadn’t loved him at all.
Not that it mattered. Kalder had never been particularly sentimental about anything or anyone.
And right now, he needed to be focused on this fight, as the lusca was currently kicking his arse and would kill him if he didn’t get his head off the lass who was watching him and back in the fight he was supposed to be having.
The beast lifted up in the sea and squalled out with a tremendous shriek.
Kalder pulled back, expecting another attack to rain down on him. Instead, he saw a cannonball land squarely against the creature’s hideous neck. Followed by two more powerful shots. Blood and sinew spewed out over him and the creature. He felt good about that.
For about a minute.
Then it exploded and sent all manner of nastiness coating his body and clogging up his gills.
Screwing his face up, he silently cursed every member of the now cheering crew.
Until he heard the sounds of someone sputtering in the water near him.
At first he thought one of the Deadmen had fallen overboard, and was drowning. It was a normal enough occurrence in battle, as many of them couldn’t swim since they had never been near deep bodies of water in their human lifetimes. For that matter, most had never been near even a modest bath by the smell of them.
He’d always assumed that was the primary reason Bane had wanted him for their crew. Made sense, as Kalder usually fished them out and returned them to the ship during battle.
