He’d never underestimate a woman with a tail again.
“May I at least ask why I am being held captive?” Leo rubbed the spot on his stomach where she’d removed her knee. He glowered at her and pinched his lips together in frustration. “Doesn’t a prisoner have the right to know?”
&nbs
p; She raised her eyebrows and pierced him with a thoughtful look. After a few seconds, she nodded her head in surrender. “One of our sisters found you at the bottom of the sea. She thought you could be the leverage we need to get the supernatural royalty of the world to recognize Aestus as an official kingdom. She saved you and brought you here.”
The young woman with the black hair. Leo felt he should know more about her. Something was sitting right on the edge of his consciousness. A final, lost memory.
“If you wanted leverage, you should’ve kidnapped my brother Viktor.” He forced a laugh and bent to wring out what was left of the bottom half of his tux. Apparently, his shoes and his pant legs up to his knees had been sacrificed to the cement. “I’m afraid I’m not involved in the running of the kingdom much. You might as well let me go. I won’t buy you any good will.”
The mermaids twittered at this news, speaking to each other in whispers behind their hands. Their leader held up her hand and everyone became silent.
“We haven’t decided what to do with you, yet.” She sucked in her cheeks and frowned. “Until we do, you shall stay here where you can be watched.”
Great. The last thing he needed was a babysitter. As soon as the mermaids left, he planned on building a raft and getting out of here. Or swim, if he had to. He’d hit land eventually. If not Monstrana, then maybe Alaska. Hard to miss that giant land mass.
“That really won’t be necessary...” He splayed his hands out in surrender. “I can take care of myself.”
“Eina!” The woman barked out a name, ignoring him completely. “Eina, you are assigned watch until the colony comes to a conclusion.”
Leo cocked his head at the mention of the name. It sounded familiar. If only he could place it.
“Surely, you don’t want me, Loriella?”
The soft voice came from further down the beach. Leo turned to find its owner hesitantly approaching them in an aqua colored dress that fell to the top of her knees. Recognition hit him like a punch in the gut. The woman from the wedding reception. The one with the strong opinions and endearing frown who he’d wanted so desperately to lead out into the garden on a midnight stroll. It was her! Eina.
She hardly spared him a glance from the corner of her eyes. Instead, she kept her head down and approached the woman she’d called Loriella, shuffling her bare feet on the rocks.
“I really don’t think I’m the best candidate to guard him.” She shot him a quick, frustrated look. “Surely, my skills would be better used in the colony meeting?”
“You brought him here,” Loriella said with a dismissive cutting motion of her hand. “You must guard him. We’re all counting on you. Do not let me down.”
Leo’s jaw dropped. Of course, Eina had been the one to bring him here. He remembered it all now. She was the mermaid who’d found him in the water. Broke apart the cement around his feet.
Eina had been his rescuer and his kidnapper. It all made sense now.
The grateful feelings he’d held for her mutated into frustrated admiration. She’d taken advantage of him in a vulnerable situation. Used it for her own good. Forced him from one bad situation into the next.
So much for lovely mermaids. They were just as awful as the sketching in Viktor’s books. Except, they used their beauty to ensnare innocent men like him into thinking they’d entered some realm of heaven, when they’d really entered a sub level of Hades. It was a lie of the worst kind.
And one that Leo totally would’ve used to his own advantage, if he could.
“Keep him here,” Loriella said, striding toward the sea edge. The rest of the mermaids had already slipped beneath the waves. She paused to throw him one more disinterested glance over her shoulder. “And if he should cause any trouble, eliminate him.”
She dove into the waters, her dress quickly morphing into the tail of a fish before her body could disappear beneath the surface.
Dread filled Leo’s chest. It seemed his life was now in the hands of the five-foot-four deadly beauty standing in front of him. Never in his life had he wished so desperately to be back at the castle in one of Viktor’s boring meetings.
At least there, no one was holding a dagger over his chest.
Chapter Six
Eina stomped onto shore, her nearly formed human legs splashing through the shallow water. In her hands she held a large flat shell with food enough to feed three of her mermaid sisters. She couldn’t believe Loriella had left her in charge of the vampire prince. Surely, she’d earned her place at the colony meetings by bringing him back here.
She couldn’t help but feel like she was being punished for thinking outside the box. The leaders hadn’t exactly been thrilled when she’d shown up with the prince in tow. But they’d done nothing but drag their mer-tails in an effort to further their kingdom of Aestus in the world. She’d done something. Something that would really make a difference. They just needed to grasp the opportunity.
“Breakfast,” she called, dropping the shell on the nearest boulder.