Kalina laughed.
“So…I begged her to make me one of her kind. And she did.”
“And what happened to her?” Kalina said. “I thought great whites never leave their mates?”
“I killed her,” he said coldly. “I waited until she was asleep next to me and then I cut off her head.”
“What the fuck?” Kalina said, jerking her hand back.
“I had to,” he said. “Don’t you get it? She could have been the one who killed you. I killed her like I planned to kill every other shark. And with the ability to change into a great white, I had the upper hand. I could hunt them on dry land and in the water. I could be the ultimate predator.”
She understood, but it was still sick. Her brother was basically a serial killer…of people and of sharks. He was killing routinely, taking out every possible beast that might have killed his little sister. As crazy as it was, it was also one of the sweetest things she’d ever heard.
“I’ve always loved you,” Keelan said and he cracked a smile. “And I’ve always felt responsible for what happened. Maybe now I can be free of that guilt. Not completely. You grew up so different from me, perhaps even better than I did, but you weren’t with your real family and that was my fault. If I’d watched you better, you wouldn’t have fallen off the boat.”
“I fell because I reached overboard,” she said. “It had nothing to do with you. You were a kid too. You were barely older than I was. If anyone was responsible, it was Mom and Dad. I’ve always believed that. I missed them, and I missed you…at first. But then I learned to forget and move on. I have a new family now. If you want to be a part of my life, you have to stop killing.”
“You forgot and moved on,” Keelan said.
Kalina wished she could peer inside his mind for a moment. The slow, contemplative way he’d said it made her wonder if she’d insulted him. She wished she’d been careful with her words. Obviously, for a man who’d spent his entire life remembering her, it must sting to hear she’d forgotten him altogether.
“I guess it was a blend of my fight or flight response. I fought to move on and adapt to my new life, and I ran from my past and the life, the people I thought had abandoned me. You were here with Mom and Dad. I was stranded in a strange place with half people half sharks. A fucking sea turtle shifter was my teacher, Keelan. I don’t remember any helicopters flying overhead or any search boats cruising the coast. To me, I’d been forgotten.”
Once again, he grabbed her hand. This time he squeezed it tight and pulled it to his forehead. He closed his eyes and whispered, “I’m so sorry you felt that way. I never abandoned you. And I never will again.”
“Then stop this foolishness with Cobalt. Leave him alone. Maybe if you stay away, he’ll do the same,” she begged.
“I promise you I won’t go looking for him anymore,” he said. “But if he comes at me, I will have to fight back, and he got lucky the other night.”
Kalina glanced at the bloody floor and knew he wasn’t kidding. If Cobalt didn’t leave well enough alone, this would be a gruesome battle. Kane wouldn’t back down. Add Evelyn and her sharks into the mix and this was going to be disastrous. She needed to warn Thane.
Chapter 22 – Sylvia
“Scream,” Coby told her through their mental connection.
He swam ahead of her, leading the way. He’d been reluctant to let her hit the water so soon, but Sylvia insisted on it. She’d known she’d made the right decision the first time she shifted into great white form. The pain had been bone splitting and mind shattering, yet once she’d finished the transformation, she felt incredibly free. All her fears of sharks and the open water had been replaced with a desire for vengeance. Coby had turned her into one of his kind, but it had been Evelyn who’d placed in her the seed of retribution. Sylvia had a lot to learn, in a short amount of time, but she was hell-bent on killing the evil bitch and her monstrous minions.
Swimming with fins had seemed to come naturally for Sylvia. Coby had been impressed. Telepathic communication had been a whole other story. With some sharks, as Coby had explained, it happens almost immediately without hardly trying. From what Penny had told her, she must have been one of those sharks. She’d been able to speak freely with her mind the moment she splashed into the water. Then again, she’d been thrust into the heat of battle and maybe her mind had simply figured it out as a result of not wanting to fucking die. For Sylvia, she was able to hear Coby with no problem at all, but she couldn’t send her thoughts to him.
“What do you mean scream?” she thought.
He didn’t respond, which meant she still wasn’t doing it right.
Fuck! What happens if someone attacks me back here behind him? What if Evelyn shows up or one of her hammerheads and I can’t even call for help?
“Scream,” Coby repeated in her head. “Haven’t you ever screamed with your mouth closed? In anger or maybe during sex when you struggled to hold in your pleasure?”
Yes, all the time with you.
This time she was glad he couldn’t read her thoughts, and that made her wonder if there was a way to turn it off once it got started. And did it work when they were in human form? She didn’t want him knowing her every thought. That could be embarrassing.
“Throw a temper tantrum in your mouth,” he said. “When you hold in that scream, you’re pushing that anger, that rage, that pleasure, whatever it is you’re feeling into your mouth. But it’s not escaping your body.”
Man, he talks a lot more in shark form than he does in human form.
“That’s the best way I can explain how we communicate. Scream inside your mouth.”
If she could have rolled her beady shark eyes, she would have. But she decided to give it a try. With all her might, she let out a scream, keeping it inside, not that she would have been able to scream on the outside anyway while speeding through the water as a big ass shark.