Bite Me Harder (Guardians of the Deep 2)

“I wasn’t there,” Sylvia said, gulping down her fear and forcing it deep into her stomach. “I’m just a, you know, a human girl, but that’s what Penny said. A great white with a big scar across its face or snout or whatever you call it.”

She reached out to touch his face, where she imagined the scar would be, and stopped a few inches away. He was silent again and his cheek shook from the intensity of his clenched teeth. He was trying to control himself for her, that much she could tell. She decided to pull her hand back for now. She didn’t know enough about the sharks to know how their abilities worked, and she wondered if they could become so angry they transformed right then and there, like all the werewolves in the movies.

What movies? Name one movie you’ve seen where that happened, Sylvia. Thriller. Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Okay, not a movie, but it happened there.

She remembered that in that super long music video, it wasn’t anger that transformed MJ. In fact, he hadn’t been mad at all. He’d been out walking with his date. It had been the full moon that had done it. The moon over Sylvia and Cobalt wasn’t quite full, but she wondered if the moon had any effect on sharks.

“I need to find that great white,” he said.

“I understand,” she said. “But for now, can you stay here with me? I was scared. So scared. Until you came. You saved me and being next to you…this is the first time I haven’t felt fear. You…you take it away from me somehow.”

It was true. Even when she’d watched him flip out on Thane, she felt almost invigorated by him. His power. His ability to not give a shit about anything around him and go after the one thing he wanted was inspiring. Revenge. That was his motivation, and she’d been enthralled with him, almost rooting for him. But why?

“You should be afraid,” he said. “I’m a monster.”

His words came short and strong, in a whispered hush, seeping their way into her mind and giving her chills. His answer surprised her, and for a second, but only for that fleeting moment, she did feel fear. Then she only wanted to understand what he meant.

“I don’t believe that,” she said. “I think you’re a hero too.”

“I attacked a diver yesterday,” he said. “I like blood. I’m not like Thane and his kind.”

“Show me,” she said, surprising herself.

She wasn’t even sure what she meant by that. What exactly did she expect him to show her? Was he supposed to shift into a shark and go kill someone for her viewing pleasure?

“I don’t know why I said that,” she admitted.

“You don’t want me to show you,” he said.

“Maybe not,” she said.

“I think Poet would have liked you,” he said. “Poet…Kenneth was his real name.”

“Kenneth,” she said. “And your name is Cobalt?”

“Yes,” he said. “But Poet called me Coby.”

“Coby,” Sylvia said. “Would you mind if I called you that?”

Sadness crept over his face again. She could only see the moonlit right half of his expression, but she could tell he was hurting. Whatever the story was between his brother and him, Coby was feeling great guilt.

“My name’s Sylvia,” she said.

He was quiet for a moment.

“Sylvia,” he replied. “Nice. I like that.”

She slid closer to him and tried not to make it obvious when she gently touched his arm. She couldn’t help eyeballing his cock as it lay limply in the sand, a fact that didn’t seem to bother him at all. As a shark, she imagined, his cock probably hung loose all the time, in and out of water. That made her think about sharks and where the man’s penis went whenever they shifted.

“I’m a monster,” Cobalt said again. “I don’t deserve happiness. And you’re safer if you stay far away from me.”

“Would Poet have agreed?” she asked. “That you’re a monster and don’t deserve this?”

This? What is this? What did I mean by tha

t? Me? He doesn’t deserve me?

He shifted his gaze again to the water and she knew she was dangerously close to losing him. She shouldn’t have mentioned his brother. It was risky. She wanted to talk romance and she’d used the least romantic tool in her arsenal.