Page 71 of Song of Lorelei

The merman came crashing out with a hiss, slamming into the wall opposite the freezer hold. Ian screeched and stumbled the rest of the way up the steps, but Killian and Walt were still down here with her.

“Run!” she yelled, snatching the harpoon from behind her back.

To the last breath.

She swung at the approaching merman. The steel tip grazed his chest, leaving a red slash. He was mostly shifted into human form, which made him clumsy. That worked in Lorelei’s favor. She also had the high ground.

But he was the more practiced killer.

She went to jab, but the merman dodged out of the way and lunged, tackling her to the ground. He grabbed her face by both sides and slammed her head down. Splintering pain cracked through her skull. She saw red first. Then stars.

It had all happened so fast.

Shouting and a scuffle ensued around her. She had no bearings on what was happening. But the weight of the merman lifted off her and she rolled over onto her stomach, wiping something warm and wet and sticky from her face. Her blood or his?

With an agonized groan, she pushed off the ground and rose to a crouched position, fumbling for the bottom step beside her for balance. Fuzzy colored spots dotted her vision, her sight slowly returning. She pressed the heel of her hand to her head.

Everything was spinning and the floor had gotten more slanted.

Some of that might’ve been the concussion, but she didn’t think so for the last bit. The boat shuddered and groaned all around her.

“My girl, you need to get out of here.” Walt sat on the ground in front of her, half in the engine room, half out in the hallway, clutching a bleeding shin with shaking fingers. The toe of his steel-toed boot was covered in merman blood.

A horrible, guttural scream ripped her heart asunder.

Killian.

She whirled around, ignoring the woozy pounding of her skull.

Killian twitched on the floor, head lulled to the side, pinned beneath the merman. Its nose was bloody and smashed in, but otherwise relatively unscathed. The same could not be said for her love. It had raked its claws deep into his chest and ravaged his shoulder. It was so brutal a wound, he’d passed out from the pain of it.

A primal shriek exploded from her lips as she hurtled herself at the merman, knocking him flat, slicing and tearing out chunks in a feverish frenzy, wherever teeth and claws met flesh. Foul kindred blood oozed down her chin, her chest, her hands, but she did not stop until it threw her off.

Twisting as quick as an eel, the merman slammed her into the ground once more. Clawed hands found her neck, squeezing, choking. She felt herself edge backward, a slow slide down the deck toward the sunken bow. He climbed on top of her, straddling her hips, which stopped the slide, but also trapped her lower body so she could do nothing more with her legs than kick them uselessly at nothing.

But her hands were free.

She dug her claws into his thighs and raked down, shredding through hard muscle. She swiped at his belly next. His groin. Anything she could reach. He howled, seizing her wrists, the only weapon left to her save her teeth, but anything vulnerable was out of reach.

He stared down at her, lips curled back in a snarl. Such ferocious hatred in those glowing yellow eyes. After the damage she’d done, he was going to kill her, she knew it. She’d be torn apart just like the freezer hold door and Dawn Chaser’s bow.

She turned her head away, meeting Killian’s eyes briefly as his consciousness slowly returned. Then Walt’s. The old man struggled to get up, reaching for her. Though it was futile in the creature’s iron-tight hold, she still writhed and yanked, trying to free herself, to the last breath.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

Through the space gap between the merman’s torso and right arm, she saw Will come pounding down the steps, a rifle in hand. He braced one boot against the railing for balance against recoil—also, when had the boat slanted enough for him to do that?

He pointed and fired.

The merman twisted and hissed above her, a red-tipped dart jutting out of his shoulder. She threw all her weight to the opposite side, using the distraction and altered balance to hurl him off herself. She scrambled to her feet, tugging Killian along by the scruff of his shirt.

The merman shakily returned to his feet.

Will fired again.

This time the dart lodged in the merman’s chest. He stumbled backward, wobbly from wounds and sedation. Tripping over his own feet, he tumbled backward, head over heels down the slope of the sinking boat. He disappeared into the dark tunnel of the hallway.

Splash.