Falling For The First Mate

Chapter 12

Agitated waves battered the sides of the Maelstrom in their nightly tantrum, rocking the boat impatiently from side to side. The sky was black and, if it hadn’t been for the splattering of stars, it would have been as fathomless as the sea. Small specks of rain blew in the violent breeze, sharp and stinging, but there was no sign of an incoming storm…yet.

Shen watched from nearby, hoping desperately for the boat to capsize so that his insatiable hunger could at last be satisfied. All he needed was chaos, injury, disaster. Was that really too much to ask for every once in a while?

Besides, some of the villainous pirates aboard that ship didn’t deserve to live, as far as he was concerned. If he hadn’t needed to feed on their final thoughts, he would have been more than content to leave them to suffer for their sins as the sea sucked the life from their lungs. It sounded harsh even to him, but he knew that it was true.

After all, it had been pirates like Kade Skyler who murdered his family, pirates that saw his kind only as threats, shadows, monsters. But really it was them who were the monsters.

Masked with greed and overcome with lust for money, they had never given a second thought to the torment they evoked. So now Shen was back for the sweet taste of revenge and the welcome satisfaction of a very good meal.

And all he had to do was wait.

Though Kade’s interference had set back his plans, the visit to the ship had not been a complete loss; the idea of mutiny was firmly planted in Evanora’s mind. Shen smiled to himself, knowing that even though the girl was undoubtedly beautiful, she was the key to the crew’s undoing.

For a mutiny meant battle, injury, sailors throwing themselves overboard to escape the wrath of the opposing men. It was a well-known fact that those who failed at mutiny would choose death over the consequences in a heartbeat. And this was good, for combat at sea was the perfect hunting ground for Shen’s kind.

Licking his lips and setting his mind, he followed behind the Maelstrom, resolving to remain unseen beneath the shelter of the roiling waves.

Until it was time for him to feed.

****

“Um, can I have your attention?” Evanora mumbled the next morning, wondering how on earth to address a deck-full of pirates without causing a riot. Especially to cover a topic as risk-ridden as a mutiny. She glanced around her, finding that nobody was paying her any attention, and tried again.

“Over here! I need to say something important!” she stamped her foot and raised her voice slightly, just enough to carry over the wind but not so loud as to alert the First Mate, who would be sure to interfere.

Again, no response from the crew. They seemed to be intently focused on whatever they were doing, be it tying down the sails, climbing the low reaches of the rigging, scrubbing the decks, or picking last night’s dinner out of their fingernails. Sighing exasperatedly, Evanora turned to her back-up plan.

“Pearl, can you get them to listen?” she asked the ship’s cook who was standing guard at her side.

“Aye, miss, that I can.” she said. And then “Oi, pirates! Listen up! Miss Evanora has somethin’ to say and yer gonna listen, or so help me I’ll stick me frying pan where the sun don’t shine, don’t think I won’t!”

At least ten heads snapped up at the dominant tone of her voice. None seemed happy to be addressed in such a way by a female, which bought a smug grin to Evanora’s face. Drago, Eric and Grimme, a trio of sweat-ridden kinsmen, stormed across the deck to circle her. Drago had a splinter of broken wood clutched in his hand that looked as if it could have been ripped from the mast itself.