Chapter 9
Leaf
This planet rises with the sun, singing, noisy, and bright. Colours I have never seen before, but my mate is curled up in a tight ball in the fork of a tree, and I can’t convince her to come down.
I’m going to destroy this whole forest if I can’t get to her soon.
“Mei?” I purr. “Come down.”
She ignores me.
“My turn.”
Reed hurls ice-cold water at her using his powers. It soaks her, and she startles awake with a shriek. She slips and falls out of the tree.
I leap and catch her. She fights and struggles until I’m forced to let her go. I turn on Reed, and with a lightning-quick transformation, I send him flying into a tree at the opposite end of the clearing.
There’s satisfaction in the crack.
Less when the tree slowly breaks apart and falls on the tent.
The curse rebounds on me, but I grit my teeth and wait it out. Ignoring the pain.
“Oh, that’s terrible,” I say and have to fight a grin at the rage sparking out of their eyes as they crawl out of the mangled material.
Ever since these five entered my oceans, I have done nothing but fight with them. Individually, they are no match for me, but once they start working together, they have the potential to overpower me, or so they think.
Not that they ever have. I wear the chain because it suits me.
I just want to be near her.
These idiots thought they were fighting an enemy, and they tried to feed me my mate. Ridiculous. I’ve been hunting for her for a hundred years.
I’m never going to let her out of my sight again-
Where’s she gone?
I whirl in a circle.
“Where’s my Mei?” I snarl.
Brio sneers as he brushes his long red hair. “Who cares?”
“I care.”
“You know, it is actually somewhat of a smart idea not to anger the creature that outweighs you by, like, a million tonnes.”
“I knew I liked this human who smells of demon jizz.”
Hartley freezes, glaring at me. “I do not smell of…this is just…shut up!”
I smile as he whirls away, calling for Diablos.
“If he wants to fight, we’ll fight,” Canto says as he walks past.
I turn to watch him because there is something so dangerous about him.
He’s got a baby face and looks almost pretty, but under all that is talent honed by years of training in a world of pure violence.
He oozes it out of his pores, and fighting with him is one of my most favourite ways to pass the time.
He never holds back.
“Are we fighting, Leaf?” He says my name in pure challenge, and it’s so damn hard to resist him.
I pick up a piece of bread and walk over to him, holding it out.
“Peace offering?” I rasp out. I live in hope. One day, he will take the food I offer.
He sneers and slaps it away. I give him a lopsided smile as he disappears into the trees. There’s always next time.
Now, where is my mate?
I listen to the forest, trying to get in tune with this strange place. She’s hidden, but she’s close.
“All right, let us begin,” Diablos says.
“The first thing you need to know about humans is that they are extremely breakable. You can kill them with just a blow to the wrong part of the body. And yet, they can sometimes live with horrendous injuries. They lack the strength we have, their ability to smell is much less than optimal, their sight, reflexes, all of it is less.”
“Inferior,” Canto mutters.
“No, not inferior!” Diablos says like a whip crack. “Just different. Their strength lies in their community, in their empathy. All of our species lack those features. They don’t glory in power, they glory in progress. Like ants or bees. It’s all about the hive.”
I cock my head to the side. I don’t know what bees or ants are, but eh. They sound like a school of fish. I eat fish.
“This planet is dying, I wouldn’t call that progress,” Brio says in disgust.
“Progress doesn’t mean they aren’t making terrible mistakes, but they are young. How many wars did the Fae wage over who would sit in a fancy seat?”
I glance at the Sirens and find that it’s Ronit who briefly closes his eyes as if that truth hurts him deeply. Ironically, all I want to do is wrap him in my coils until he’s no longer looking so pained, but that would start a battle that might last years.
“In Nightmare, it’s kill or be killed. You survive by being stronger, tougher, faster, and more scary than what is trying to eat you,” Mei explains from her hiding spot.
I think about my poor Mei having to fight and run all her life. Blind.
She is the most worthy mate.
I let out a chirping purr that startles Lirin into falling off his log.
“What the fuck is that, you creepy shithead!”
I narrow my eyes at him but keep making the sound. Soothing my mate, telling her I think she’s wonderful.
Reed throws a pine cone at my head, but I snatch it out of mid-air, sniff it all over, and then peg it back. Except he wasn’t watching.
It hits him so hard in the forehead that he simply keels over, unconscious.
Oops.
Pain explodes in my head, but I cackle through it.
Ronit and Canto leap up; the latter charges me, while the former goes to check on Reed. I try to stay out of Canto’s way, but he pulls out that gloriously black-bladed sword that he loves so much and starts flicking it at me, attempting to cut me into a ribbon.
“I can see I am wasting my breath!” Diablos says and sits down, glaring at the ground.
“We’ll figure it out, Di. They just need…look, I don’t know what they need. Probably monster Valium, but we will get there. It was a good idea, and if anyone can do it, it’s you.”
My blood rushes as I fight to stay one step ahead of Canto.
“He threw it first!” I giggle.
“I liked it better when you couldn’t speak.” His glare is dark and his teeth bared at me. All those pretty muscles flex and shift as he chases me with such skill.
“No, you didn’t. You love me.”
Canto stops dead, his eyes bulging. “Do you even know what love is?”
I hesitate, losing my smile. No, I don’t, but I heard Diablos and Hartley talking about it last night.
“You want to mate me.” I say finally, with triumph, slapping myself on the back for making a wonderful deduction.
Canto’s face turns puce, and I think, perhaps, I've made the most fascinating mistake ever.
“I do not ever, ever, in this world or any others, want to mate with you.”
My disappointment surprises me. Before I can think on it, he leaps at me. I don’t know how I lived without them. When they entered my ocean, it was like something inside me came alive.
I stopped hunting and just causing terror.
He lunges at me, and I laugh as I whirl just out of range. But I’m not in the ocean, and my foot slips, and he slices my arm.
A cry escapes me, and I stare down at the blue blood welling out of the cut. Canto pulls his blade back to attack me again, his face straining with pain as the Diablos’ cuff punishes him.
I can’t defend myself. I’m too shocked.
Something hits him, and he goes flying, hitting another tree.
I look up, and she’s standing there, her chest heaving, arms loose at her side, hair lifted in the wind. The air sparks around her, and I know that even if I never get to put my scales back in the ocean ever again, I will be happy just to be hers.
“Don’t touch him.”
Internally, I roll in pure pleasure. She is a possessive mate. Yes!
Canto rolls to his feet and starts towards her. “You made a mistake, Strega.”
“No, I didn’t.”
He runs and jumps, bringing his sword down and making the earth split beneath her feet. She jumps away into the trees, disappearing from view, and I realise something else. She might not understand human food or their technology, but she understands the wild places.
She evades Canto easily.
“Stop it now!” Diablos thunders. “You are like children. Do I need to put you in time out? And she’s right, you don’t stab your teammates. Also, for reference, Reed threw the cone first. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it!”
He sits down and glares at us.
“This isn’t going to work,” Ronit says wrathfully.
“Oh, are you quitting already, Siren? Is this how it’s going to go?
Breaking your bond and your oaths? Tossing aside your responsibilities and shirking your duties and, for what?
What do you have to do that is a better use of your time?
Does it occur to you that you might learn something from each other? ”
“There is nothing I want to learn from her,” Ronit roars. “She destroyed everything, every chance, every hope.”
Diablos goes still. “What did she destroy, Ronit?”
He breathes hard, his chest heaving, his hair a mess, and his golden eyes glowing with his rage. He looks utterly feral.
“Everything,” he says flatly, in control of himself again. “Just everything.”
“Right. Well, make your decision, then. We can proceed, or I can let you all level a forest until it’s all out of your system.”
Diablos sits back down and takes the cup Hartley offers him.
I like the way they look at each other. Like they don’t see anyone else. Their eyes get soft, and they smile with their whole selves.
A fist crashes into my jaw, and I stagger a step back.
“Ow.”
“What did I tell you?” Mei snarls and drops from a branch.
She circles slowly until she’s standing between me and Ronit, glaring at him. If she were like Kit, her fur would be standing on end. She certainly moves like him.
“Stay out of this, Strega, I will deal with you in a minute.”
Ronit moves, but she lashes out, and before any of us can blink, Ronit is on his knees blinking up at her.
“Uh, what just happened?” Hartley says and moves to where he’s got a better vantage spot.
Ronit gets up, but she moves again, putting him on his knees once more.
“You feel good down there, Siren. How about you stay?”
There’s a breathlessness in her voice that has my body tightening. Is this what lust feels like?
She lets out a husky little laugh that makes me want to rub against her.
Ronit gets up again. This time, he moves back, dancing out of the way, making sure she can’t touch him again.
“Are you all done?” Diablos snaps again.
“Yes, we’re done,” she says decisively. “I have had enough.”
Something catches her attention, and she turns, ignoring everything else. She moves in jerks and starts, pausing to listen every few steps.
I turn so I can watch her.
We all do.
She inhales and crouches down.
A butterfly lifts into the air. It’s massive and black and blue; I wish she could see it. The butterfly flaps drunkenly around and then comes straight at her before landing on her cheek.
Mei laughs, a sudden chime of glorious sound that freezes everyone who hears it. It just bursts into the world.
It goes straight into me and grips my soul. Mei was made for laughter. I think I give her a big part of who I am. I know that I don’t care.
She giggles, and the butterfly takes off, and before I can speak, this terrifyingly beautiful monster is surrounded by a cloud of butterflies whirling around her like they know she’s something special.
I know she’s something special, it's why I can’t look away, it's why I won’t leave, no matter what I have to do or who I have to fight.
The butterflies flap and whirl around, and I become aware of the Sirens with their hard stares and distrustful eyes, but there’s something else in them, too.
Maybe they have never looked at her and seen a person, a creature capable of love and laughter.
Perhaps they will change as I have, allowing glowing lanterns lit by strangers to sit inside their hearts and make the worlds just a little bit less lonely.
Mei dances with the butterflies.
No one speaks; no one interrupts her. We just watch, silent witnesses to something I’m sure they all thought was impossible.
How did she know the butterflies were there? Does she feel them in the air around her? Does she call them to her?
Is she magic?
There is so much I need to learn about my mate, but the one thing I know above everything else is that she is mine.
And this morning just proved it. She was willing to save me.
If she needs to get away from the Sirens, I will help her collect these five skins and get her away from them.
Mei laughs again and twirls, her arms stretched out wide.
Whatever it takes. Whatever she needs.