Read Online A Mermaid's Ransom by Joey W. Hill - Free Book Online

recognized it? He'd even reminded her of Mina, and Mina was the only living Dark Spawn in her world, half Dark One, half mermaid. But in Lex's dreams, she'd only seen the trappings of fire and darkness, and Dante. Even from him she hadn't felt this utter lack of hope or light. It was incomprehensible, beyond any understanding she had in her world. The darkest soul she'd ever met there didn't come close to this.
    She struggled to hold herself back up on her arms. Though she knew she had nowhere to go, a wild animal's mindless panic closed in, seeing all those leering faces around her, that terrible energy. She flung herself at the circle's edge, toward the creatures, hoping to break through them. The boundary blasted her again, hard enough to knock her into the opposite side. She would have ricocheted back to the floor, writhing with pain, except one of the creatures dared to shoot a claw through that boundary. Talons dug into her breast as he howled, for the circle's binding was an electric current, locking them together in the brutal grip of its barbed protection. Alexis screamed thinly, no air to give voice to the pain and horror of feeling as that dark poison invaded her. Help me, help me . . .
    She was dropped, and now the cool wetness of the stone was welcome, though her muscles jittered in the aftermath of the voltage. A snarl, a thudding of bodies, another howl. She saw a flash of something that might have been steel, then magic surged through the chamber. Like gunpowder, it tickled her nose. More shrieks, sharp talons scraping stone as the creatures beat a hasty retreat. But when they hit the door, it was obvious from their panicked shrill grunts they were not able to get it to open.
    The one who'd grabbed her was lying on the ground, trying weakly to make its way to its other companions. Dante stood over it, his lips peeled back from lethal fangs. The others froze as his gaze pinned them. Still watching them, he dropped to his knees, wrenched the creature up from the floor and sank his fangs into its neck. The Dark One hissed and gurgled as Dante ripped into flesh as well as blood. Alexis was frozen in horror, unable to look away as blood trickled down its throat, splattered the narrow chest. Dante's powerful back muscles rippled as he took a long, deep draught, then rose. Before she could hide her eyes, he tore the creature's head free of his body and hurled it at the cowering group at the door.
    "Get this out of here, and get out of my sight. I will have whatever I wish to have. You have what I give you. Be satisfied with that or become like him. Go get me more blood. Now ."
    They scrambled forward, staying as far from Dante as possible as they caught their dead comrade by a loose arm. Hauling him out the now open door, they closed it on his leg in their haste, so they had to reopen it, jerk the leg through and then slam it. The reverberation was loud in the silence.
    Alexis could hear her own laboring breath. At least with their departure, that suffocating desolation eased from unbearable to intolerable. But she was covered in blood. It was in her wings, her hair, the crevices of her scales. She wondered that her mind had not shut down at the ghastliness of it, but there was no mercy in this place, such that ruthlessness permeated even brain function.
    Dante stood exactly where he'd killed the creature, his eyes pinned on the door. She realized his lips were moving, and that terrible feeling was lessening even further. It had come in with those creatures, and left with them, so he had this room warded from whatever it was they emanated, at least enough to make it manageable.
    While she'd never been so frightened in her life, she had to think. Though she'd never anticipated needing such a thing, she'd taken a self-defense course with Clara. Grasping for anything to calm herself, she remembered the most important thing the instructor had emphasized. You may not know how to get out of a situation, but if you keep your