The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (29 page)

“You’re so full of shit,” I push him back and he looks disappointed, a cool mask of reserve sliding in quickly. I don’t have it in me to care; the tequila is taking up too much room in my head.

“And you are battered, Love.”

“What does that even mean? Battered. Such a guttural… manly word,” I repeat the words, swinging my head from side to side to a silent song nobody can hear but me.

“Drunk, Love. I know, you don’t have to tell me my British accent is an incredible turn on. Especially when I use words you don’t understand.”

“Do you put tequila in your tea in England then?” I ask him with mock seriousness, more giggles explode from my lips.

“Not all British people like tea you know. I notice you aren’t an obese mess, sitting on a couch on her front lawn with a shot gun,” he takes another swig from the bottle, which is starting to look rather empty. I want to cry.

“But you like tequila,” I remind him and he smirks.

“Everyone likes tequila, Love. Even the Queen.”
 

“So if you love tequila so much… why did you only bring one bottle?” I ask him and he gestures for me to lean in closer. I move forward and he puts his lips close to the shell of my ear, his breath hot.

“Who says I only brought one?” With that he is gone. I smirk to myself biting into a rogue bit of lime that has been left, wrapped up in the plastic bag. The zest is incredible and my mind is blurred, soaking in spirits that are apparently happier than my own.
 

Vex returns, another bottle and another plastic bag in hand.

“How many of those do you have in that bike seat?” I ask him looking surprised.

“Enough to get even me drunk… and to kill you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask him and he smirks, sitting back once more on the arm of the chair. His head against the wall, he unscrews the bottle, handing it to me. I like its fullness; the glass is cooling to my touch.
 

“You are a lightweight, love. But that’s to be expected, you’re a twiglet,” he brushes my arm with his fingers.

“Hey!” I slap his hand away, glugging more of the salty burn into my gullet.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’d love a taste. Just say the word, Love.”

“What is, ‘The Word’?” I ask him, coming up close to him and feeling my skin heat.

“Hmmm… that’s a good question. What do you want it to be?” He asks me, taking my bottle from me and screwing the lid back on. I ponder this for a moment before pulling on the only word I can think of.

“Tequila.”
 

Vex laughs.
 

A few hours later and the house is starting to clear. The music has been pretty low key for the last thirty minutes, and Vex and I sit, tequila bottles strewn around us and empty with salt spilled out, looking not unlike cocaine. I look at them and pout, poor, empty bottles. Someone needs to fill them up. It’s no fun being empty.

“You alright, Love?” Vex asks me again, he keeps asking me this and I keep nodding.
 

“It’s so sad. They’re so empty,” I reply in a murmur and he laughs.

“I’m not giving you anymore, Pet. Not if I want you to remain conscious.”
 

“Do you?” I ask him with a wry smile and he laughs.

“Yeah, you’re not bad company for a priss.”

“Why thank you, Vexy, you’re not bad company for a per… perverted murderer,” I pat him on the arm with a floppy hand and puff air out of my cheeks, a sudden and unfamiliar biological urge hitting me. I hadn’t felt this way in a while. “I need to pee,” I announce to him and he snorts.

“I’m not giving you permission, Love. Bathroom is through there,” he points at the double glass doors that lead into the kitchen space of the house. I climb out of the chair, my legs betraying me completely. I stumble, feeling the room spinning and my vision becoming cloudy.
 

I move through the glass doors, pushing both of them open in a dramatic flair not unlike a movie star’s entrance onto the red carpet. That’s when I see it. Something terrifying.

“Callie?” The voice is all too familiar and is then echoed by somebody who I had never ever expected to see again, let alone when I looked like this.

“Hey, Mollie. Chloe,” I nod to them and they gape, looking so stupidly human that I want to physically push their mouths closed.
 

Mollie is sat on some guy’s lap and Chloe is standing in some extremely skimpy attire over by the sink with a beer in her hand.

“Oh that’s right! You guys know each other! How could I forget!” The guy who’s lap Mollie is sat on perks up at the drama and I realise I know him, too. Of course, it’s Daryl. Right in the middle of an awkward sandwich, of my old life and new, is where he seems to belong somehow.

“What the hell happened to her?” Chloe asks Mollie and I turn to her.

“I’m right here. Why don’t you ask me yourself?” I snap at Chloe and she recoils, I wonder if my eyes are completely blackened, do I look horrifying? Like some hideous monster? I retreat slightly, afraid of myself reflected in her flinching and stiff posture. “Sorry,” I mumble and she rolls her eyes.

“Whatever. You’re so weird.” She takes a swig of her beer and I roll my eyes. Still classic Chloe.
 

I turn to Mollie, I want to say something, explain myself, but my brain is foggy from the drink and what could I possibly say. Really sorry I stopped being your friend because I ran off with a merman? Ummm… maybe not.
 

Daryl reaches around for a second and kisses the side of Mollie’s neck, she giggles and as someone opens the back door a cold draft of air knocks my brain into overdrive and out of Tequila-Land, something within me clicks into place.

“Mollie can you come here please?” I ask her calmly, Daryl’s lips slide back over razor sharp teeth and his pupils turn to black.

“Why?” She looks at me, her beetle black eyes so innocent. After everything I’ve done to her; disappearing, leaving a bruised and bloody Daryl on the beach house floor after he attacked me, and vanishing again with no trace. She is still as warm toward me as ever. I really did have a true friend in her. I love her for that, it’s true, but not enough to want her to have immortal life.

“Please?” I feel my pulse heighten, blood thudding in my ears and Daryl catches my eye and smiles.

“Nah, I’m good here,” she says.
 

Don’t be stupid. Oh wait, she’s human.
 
I think.
 

I don’t want to cause a scene so I turn on my heel and exit the room moving back into the living space where Vex is sat, lighting a cigarette.

“Can you come with me a sec?” I ask him and he raises his eyebrows.

“Bugger, I just lit up… can’t it wait? I’ve been waiting to find a lighter for bloody weeks now, Love,” he pleads with me, the alcohol still clearly making him fuzzy.

“Daryl is about to kill my friend,” I say and his eyes narrow.
 

“So?” He says before inhaling and then blowing smoke into my face. I cough slightly.

“So, I’d really rather he didn’t kill her.”

“He’s a Psiren, Love, it’s what we do,” he looks at me, something pitying behind his irises.

“Do you want me to kill Darius? I’m pretty sure that Solustus would be pissed,” he shrugs but leans forward, stowing the lit cigarette behind his ear.

“Fine, I’ll handle it,” he gets up, kicking an empty tequila bottle against the wall so hard it smashes. The drink clearly hasn’t lulled his violent side.

“Darius old friend!” He bursts through the glass doors, placing the cigarette in the side of his mouth.

“Yes, Vex? What is it? Out of lager?” He paraphrases the British word for beer, I know he’s making fun of Vex.

“Nah, mate. I just wanted to say I think we should go, it’ll be sunrise in a few hours and the calibre of women here… well, I mean look at ‘em,” he turns to Chloe, “Go put some clothes on, Love. You look like a street walker.” He gestures to her and she storms out, looking embarrassed and frightened at his forwardness.
 

I look at Vex, his muscles straining against the thin cotton of his black shirt, which is speckled with salt. He takes another puff on his cigarette, moving to address Mollie.
 

“As for you, you don’t want to get into it with this guy. I mean, look at Callie… that’s what happens if you get involved with a guy who just wants to get you under him. Has he even taken you on a date?”

“No...” She mumbles fidgeting.

“Well then, what do you think he’s here for? Cookies?” He raises his eyebrows and I want to roll on the floor laughing. Brutal honesty has never been so funny.
 

Mollie rises and moves away, one step, then another until she’s out of Daryl’s reach. I relax as I hear her footsteps following Chloe’s out of the front door. I hear it slam and exhale heavily. Daryl doesn’t move to go after her, fully aware that if he tries anything me and Vex will have him on the floor with a smashed up face in seconds. I stand over him as he stays sat on the chair and he looks up at me.

“You’re a real bitch you know that?” He spits at me. With those words Vex shifts, moving and slamming his fist into Daryl’s nose. He is knocked back onto the floor, laying splayed out and bleeding on top of the chair which aided his fall.

“Hey. Nobody calls her a bitch but me.”
 

Together, we walk from the almost totally empty house, Vex’s arm slung around me, not because I’m his, but because it’s comfortable. We clamber onto the bike in silence, unified in fury. I wrap my arms around Vex as we leave Daryl and Tiberius behind, making our way into the dark, alone.
 

The night hadn’t been whatever I was expecting, and after everything was said and done I still haven’t managed to go pee.

CALLIE

For lack of a better place to go, Vex pulls the bike up to the edge of the sand, facing the beach from where we came. My stomach is churning and my head is clearing from the air of the night, which has been running through my hair on our journey here. We dismount in silence, shocked slightly at our unity in front of Daryl and Tiberius. Since when had Vex done anything that didn’t directly benefit him?

“Why did you save my friend?” I ask him timidly. He sits down in the sand, lighting up another cigarette and taking a few puffs. I sit down next to him, stripping off my shoes, which are starting to pinch because they belonged to a dead woman. They aren’t mine.

“Couldn’t have you whining at me,” he sighs out and I narrow my eyes. He seems irritable.

“Why do you think it is okay to kill people?” I ask him and he looks at me, surprised.

“Have you seen me kill anyone?”
 

“You’re part of an army built specifically to kill the mer, what do you expect that means Vex? That you’re going to send them cookies?” I snap, pulling on his metaphor from earlier.

“That’s different,” he looks out to sea, at the darkness of the horizon.

“Why is it different?”

“Because it’s justified,” he looks at me and blows smoke in my face.

“How? How is it justified?” I am desperately curious as to his answer. I hadn’t ever considered the Psirens as people, with motivation behind their actions, I had always just assumed they were soulless killers.

“The mer, you don’t deserve to live the way you do. All the luxuries and jewels, Love. I mean you cry diamonds for God’s sake. It isn’t right. Especially not while we’re stuck in the darkness. Why should you get to be on top, because some Goddess says so? We belong in that city, we’re stronger. The world would stand a better chance with us as protectors,” he looks me directly in the eye, his lilac irises burn with passion for the cause he’s been fed.

“Who told you this?” I ask him and he inhales more smoke.

“Mother,” the single word I had been expecting passes between us. They have power, more than the mer know and it is because the Psiren children she had created believed they were the rightful occupants of the Occulta Mirum. I puff out air.

“Would you believe me if I told you that’s not true?” I ask him and he shakes his head.

“After what you’ve told me about bloody Onion head I’m more sure it’s true than ever.” I nod. He’s never going to believe he’s been fed a load of lies.