She grimaced and held up a wriggling sea cucumber. “I’m afraid this is the best I could do. Not a lot of places to steal a bag of blood. Especially if you don’t want to draw attention to yourself.”
He glowered at her through his eyelashes. So much for eating today. He’d rather starve than choke on that poor excuse for a slug.
“What’s that?” Eina shoved the meal into his hand and leaned over to look behind him. “Is that a shark?”
“Oh, yeah.” He tossed the sea cucumber when she wasn’t looking and strode toward the gray mass. “Must’ve washed ashore. Poor thing’s still alive.”
Eina rushed to the shark’s side and ran her hand over its back. She circled around it, whispering words of comfort, and stroking its side. As she approached the head, Leo opened his mouth to object. Mermaid or not, that thing looked like it could take a chomp out of her with a turn of its giant head. But Eina didn’t seem frightened. She ran her fingertips down to the tip of its snub nose and kneeled in front of it.
“We have to save it,” she said, looking up at him.
Leo glanced behind him, convinced he would see another mermaid or two present. Surely, she didn’t mean to recruit him in this rescue operation. He liked his arms and legs exactly where they were.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” She stood and brushed her hands together. “I can’t lift him by myself. I’m going to need your help.”
“You’re serious?” He took a step back up the beach. “That thing wouldn’t think twice about eating you for breakfast. And you’re going to save it?”
She pulled back her chin, confusion wrinkling her forehead. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
Leo had to shake his head in amazement. She was face-to-fa
ce with a real monster. A four hundred pound eating machine that wasn’t ruled by empathy or emotion. And yet he was the one who deserved to be slowly starved on a barren island? Some things just didn’t make sense.
Still, the resolution in her eyes told him she was going to do this, with or without him. She was one stubborn mermaid. And he couldn’t help admiring her for it.
“Fine.” He shoved his sleeves a little further up his arms. “Let’s get this over with. If it eats one of us, at least it won’t go hungry.”
An approving smile tugged at Eina’s lips. She positioned herself on one side of the shark and Leo did the same on the other. They counted down and then heaved the shark toward the sea. The effort moved the creature a few feet, but not far enough for it to swim free. It thrashed at the intrusion, twisting its lithe form to bite at their feet. Leo barely missed a nip on his ankles. He swore and fell into the water, shuffling back as far as he could.
“What are you doing?” Eina peered at him over the shark’s back as if she hadn’t just witnessed the near assault. “Come on, if we don’t move him soon, he’ll die.”
Leo grumbled senseless words under his breath and slapped the water. This mermaid would be the end of him.
“Why should it fall to you to save him anyway?” he asked, holding out a hand in the shark’s direction, frustration thick in his voice. “Maybe, fate had different plans for this shark. Ever think about that?”
Eina gave him a sorrowful look and closed her eyes. She ran her palm lovingly over the shark. When she opened her eyes again, he could see determination written all over her face.
“It’s my job because I know what it’s like to be helpless and without a voice.” She clenched her jaw and sighed. “This might come as a shock, but not everyone was born oozing charm and charisma like you.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but snapped it shut again. Seven hundred years made for many lifetimes. He hadn’t always been that charming or charismatic. There was a time in his mortal life when everything had seemed dark. When his family hadn’t known whether they would live to see tomorrow or not.
They were the victims of a terrible genocidal war. If his grandfather hadn’t sought out the vampire curse and saved them all, Leo wouldn’t have gone on to become the man he was today. Someone who didn’t like to linger in the bad times.
“What does charm and charisma have to do with saving a shark?” he asked cautiously, eyeing the intense expression on her face.
Her dark eyes narrowed. “Unlike you, I’ve never felt like I belonged. Not even in the colony which hatched me. All my life, I’ve desired to have an impact on the world. Do wonderful and amazing things. But when I’m in front of my sisters, I clam up. It’s like I can’t speak. Can’t form my own opinions. I’m used to living in this world like a shadow. Stuck and slowly suffocating on a beach of my own making.”
She gazed at the shark with so much sorrow, Leo couldn’t help but push himself off the ground and cautiously approach the beast. “So you’re saying, you connect more with animals than mermaids?”
Her lips curled into a shy smile. “I guess so. And if I can’t impact the world, at least I can make it better for this one creature.”
He sighed and rolled his shoulders, not quite sure why he was letting her talk him into this. Reaching down, he dug his fingers under the smooth cartilage of the shark’s belly and looked expectantly up at her.
“Are we going to do this or not, shark bait?”
She flashed him a radiant smile that made his undead heart flip and leaned down to do the same. With a heave-ho, they shoved the shark into deeper water, until it began to thrash once again. But this time, its powerful tail propelled it forward and it took off into the water with hardly a splash. Leo and Eina stood side-by-side, watching the top of its dorsal fin sink into the Bering Sea.
“You know, I rescued Rodrigo from a black magic ring,” Leo said, rubbing the back of his head. For some reason, he had the sudden desire to impress her. “Spirit guides are hot stuff in those circles. Poor thing was half-starved and missing most of his fur.”