Filed To Story: The Saltwater Curse Book PDF Free
Never mind. My message has been sent. There’s no need to finish the whole human. A third of his body is more than sufficient.
I will never understand why humans were considered a delicacy centuries ago.
He should be thanking Cindi he is being granted a quick death. He’d be suffering far more if she hadn’t hit him with her cute little arm. I wish I had been closer to see it more clearly, but the simple act of recalling it fills me with delight.
I release him and shift back onto two legs. Copper and sulfur mixes with urine and garbage. My stomach turns, and I feel slightly queasy. I blow out a breath and almost reach for the wall to stop myself from falling. It feels like I’m letting the sea carry me, floating freely on the water’s surface.
I think the human is making me…
Oh, alcohol, old friend.
Back when the prospect of Yannig and I wearing a crown was just a funny joke, Yannig would drag me with him to go hunting for the squid that would give krakens a high from its venom. When we got older, he’d force me to try the human liquor.
A heavy weight eases onto my chest. It has been many years since I’ve consumed such toxins. The only person I’ve ever been around in this state is Yannig. It’s been…what? Two decades since I’ve had a positive experience with another kraken—longer since I had any type of fun, because he was occupied, attempting to end the Curse.
My life of solitude—with Vasz—is over. I have Cindi now, and I will keep her safe, protect her from her own nightmares.
My nostrils flare as I break into a run on shaky legs, tearing through the streets to follow her scent. Too much time and people have passed for there to be a clear trail.
Did she use her own vehicle to get here? Where would she have parked?—
My hearts stop beating when a cry rips through the air.
Cindi.
I force my human legs to move as fast as they can, and I frown at the sound of a very male cry. I cover the distance within a matter of seconds, rounding a corner before skidding to a stop.
There’s a male groaning and rolling around the ground, cupping his sex. My attention snaps up toward the sound of shuffling, and red explodes across my vision. One man has his hand in Cindi’s hair while the other tries yanking her backward by her arms as she kicks.
Rage bursts through my chest. A vicious snarl renders the night still. Four pairs of eyes swing my way, but all I see is red.
My hold on this form vanishes. A rare burst of magic explodes from me, crashing into my surroundings as I roar. A cacophony of blaring car horns sends my anger to new heights. Three of my arms shoot out, sending the men holding my Cindi crashing against the wall.
I grab the one who had his hand in her hair and crush both arms in my tentacles. White splinters stick out of his thin skin. I do his legs next before moving to the other male to rip his limbs from his shoulders. Crimson squirts from the gaping sockets, spraying the dirty walls with his filth.
Cindi stands there frozen, fear scent strong, staring at me with her deep brown eyes like I truly am the monster she’s been made to fear. Her mortification breaks through my bloodlust, and I hold my breath, waiting for her to start screaming at my appearance.
My grandmother procreated with a land dweller, but I am the only one in my family who held markings that proved our tainted bloodline. I was deemed an abomination the moment I was born without webbing between my arms and chest, with five fingers instead of four.
The whispers worsened as I grew older. The upper half of my body began to resemble the two-legged kind: claws, some straight teeth, hair. My own mother’s eyes would crinkle with guilt when her sights landed on me, like she regretted birthing me and subjecting me to this life.
Cindi is looking at me like the other krakens do: as if I am a plague.
The smell of her horror permeates the air. It…it must be because she’s never seen my kind before, not that she believes there is something inherently wrong with me—that can’t be the reason.
A warning growl rips from me when she looks away to the two unconscious bodies. I don’t want her to stop looking at me. I want to see her. I want her to see me.
My head snaps toward the spare human, who lets out a shrill scream, jumping to his feet to run for it. I snarl and grab him by the ankle to slam him against the ground, cracking his skull in two.
When I look up, my mate is nowhere to be seen; there’s only the harsh echo of her shoes slapping the ground. She’s running from me. I need to catch her before she escapes my grasp, before I can no longer protect her.
Every instinct in my body thrums with raw, primal energy. My muscles prime and contract, ready to give chase. Each of my senses sharpen until all I can hear and smell is my fleeing treasure. The excitement of the hunt is quickly washed away by the bitter scent of her terror—like ash and acid.
I curl my hands into fists, staring in the direction she ran. Maybe I was wrong.
Not even the Goddess could create someone who could want me.Cindi
What the actual fuck was that?
I’m going insane.
Absolutely fucking insane.
There’s no way that was real. I’m imagining things. I drank too much. I’ve been drugged.
Or I have a concussion from hitting my head when those guys tried to capture me.
This is like that time Tommy threw me into our basement and locked me in there for three weeks. There was no light, no window for me to look out of, no sound. Just my thoughts and the one time a day he’d visit to feed me.
I heard voices—Dad’s. Thought I saw my mother too. They spoke to me, kept me company, and checked on me when no one else did.
Maybe I’ve just lost the plot, because there is no universe in which an eight-legged tentacle creature just saved my life.
An eight-legged tentacle creature changed from two legs in a second flat. One I’ve run into twice in two days. One who I thought was the most attractive man I’ve ever seen.
He’s an alien. He has to be. There’s all that shit on the news about how they live in the ocean and can shapeshift to pass off as us or whatever. I haven’t got a clue what else he could be.
Scrubbing my hand over my face and looking around my bedroom, a wave of fatigue has me tripping over my feet and leaning against the wall to catch my breath.
I need to leave.
Tonight.
Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. I’ll be damned if I stick around to see that thing a fourth time. The shit that’s gone on with my alarm and the pirates is reason enough. Tonight’s events are expediting my departure.
Those men are a mystery to me. One of them was European, and the other might have been Indonesian—I don’t know. It was dark, I was scared, and I couldn’t make out their faces. I didn’t understand a word of what they were saying or whether they were complete strangers or pirates or Gallagher connections.
Tears spill down my cheek. God, I hate that I liked it here. I liked my cabin. The two friends I made. The beach. The food. The smell of the fresh air in the morning. The whistle of the wind between the trees during a storm.
I shouldn’t have gotten attached.
Furiously swiping at my cheeks, I run around the house, shoving everything I can into my luggage—laptop, burner phone, cash I’ll strap to my body later, more fake passports, more fake IDs, disguises, toiletries. My go bag already has everything I need, but it’s better to have more, since I still have the work car to run away with.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.