Page 31 of A Pirate's Pleasure

“Cover your ears,” I shouted, the instruction primarily aimed at Lief, but including anyone else who cared to follow it.

As I pressed my hands to my ears, Lucretius threw his head back and let rip, the scream shrill, and loud enough to pierce an ear drum. Even with my ears covered, I felt it right down to my bones. The cry of a spurned harpy wasn’t one to be ignored. And Lucretius was making sure that wasn’t possible. Lief was suffering too, his expression of pain unmistakable.

And still the sound went on. How could Lucretius have that much oxygen in his lungs? I would have used magic, but there were some problems that harnessing weather and bending it to your will just couldn’t solve. And this was one of them.

The pain grew in intensity until it felt like my ears were bleeding. I closed my eyes against it. He would stop. He had to. It wasn’t like he could go on screaming forever. Any time now. Either that or he’d bring the whole building down on top of us and then the screaming and the pain would be the least of my problems.

And then it stopped.

Suddenly.

No trailing off, no gradual ceasing. Just excruciatingly painful noise one second, and then the next, glorious silence. Almost like something had surprised Lucretius, and he’d forgotten what he was supposed to be doing.

I opened my eyes to find Lucretius staring down at his chest, at the place where a dagger protruded from between his ribs. Lief’s dagger. Lief had always found a way to use it if he needed to. Even when that had resulted in me needing to throw him over my shoulder while he was unconscious and carry him away a time or two. A thick trail of blood oozed from the wound to saturate the harpy’s white shirt, which explained why Lief was looking anywhere but at Lucretius. Now would be a terrible time for him to pass out.

Chapter Thirteen

Zephyr

“What did you do?” I asked.

Lief swallowed, his head turned so sharply away from Lucretius that it must have been painful. “I needed the noise to stop before I went deaf. I aimed for the heart. Is he dead?”

“Not quite. Harpies have more than one heart.”

“Fuck!”

“Yeah.”

Lucretius stood. Instead of screaming again, he smiled. It was a smile that said we’d really done it now. And then he changed. Extra muscle and bone grew, sprouting from nowhere in a process that happened so rapidly that if it hadn’t been utterly horrifying, would have been impressive. Feathers broke through his skin, his clothes seeming to melt away to nothing. Some of his feathers melded together to form mighty wings that stretched far above his head. His facial features sharpened. Still human, but yet not.

“What’s happening?” Lief asked, his face still turned away.

“He’s transforming.”

“I guess I don’t need to ask into what.”

Lief faced forward again, safe to do so now that what blood there’d been around the protruding dagger was no longer visible due to all the feathers.

“I said you’d regret it,” Lucretius said, his voice raspier than it had been when he was human, and his mouth now sporting those jagged teeth I remembered so well from my first sighting of Lucretius in this form.

“Fucking hell,” Lief said. “He’s huge.”

There was no arguing with that. Not when he towered above us now by at least three feet. More, if you took our seated position into consideration. Which begged the question why we were still sitting and watching, like it was some sort of show put on especially for us. Lucretius hadn’t transformed completely yet, but he was close. And once he was done, we were sitting ducks. “Run,” I shouted.

Lief didn’t need to be asked twice, only pausing for long enough to snatch his dagger out of the harpy’s chest before making for the door. I was close behind him, the emptiness of the rest of the tavern indicating its other two occupants hadn’t been stupid enough to stick around for as long as we had.

Fresh air was most welcome as we stumbled out of the door. “Where?” Lief asked.

It was an excellent question considering we were on an island we didn’t know, with no way off it except to swim until Boden and Stafford returned with the boat. From what we’d seen, there was nothing but cliffs and the few houses, none of them showing any signs of life.

Lief ran over to the closest one and banged on the door. No response. The same thing happened with the second one.

I pulled him away. “They won’t keep him out, anyway.”

“So what then?”

“Higher ground.”