And yet …
In the flash of one single heartbeat, his mind took him back to the days when he hadn’t been the leader of his race. To the time before he’d first taken a life in battle and had been nothing more than the beloved older brother of his younger sister.
No longer on this ship, he was again in the green meadows where he’d run as a boy. And as was his wont, he was off to join his friends to hunt for game and play for a rare afternoon of freedom—something he’d worked and suffered hard for.
And as was typical of his sister, Elyzabel was hot on his heels, annoying the very piss from him. Five years his junior, she was a tiny wisp of a thing, yet she thought herself his equal in size and abilities.
“What are you about, Du? Why are you carrying Ta’s spear? Does he know you have it?”
“Aye, he knows. Why are you bothering me now with your inane prattle? Off with you! Isn’t there someone else you can annoy for once besides me? We have a sister, you know. Surely, she’s more suited to your tastes than I.”
But she’d never preferred Edyth’s company over his. And not that he blamed her that. Edyth was a futtocking handful on her best day.
“Are you off to hunt? Can I come? Please, please!”
“Nay!” Turning on his heels, he’d growled at Elyzabel. Then froze as he saw the tangles in her brown hair and the dirt on her freckled cheeks. More than that, he noted that, beneath the dirt, a bruise had started to form that deepened the shade of her amber eyes, and there was a tear in her dress.
Though scarce more than tick-size, she was ever ready to stand toe to toe with him, never flinching in her temerity whenever he’d said or done anything that displeased her. She would even dare to shove at him when no man save their father would so much as meet his gaze in anger.
Shout in his face whenever she was mad at him.
She even stood up to their father during his most drunken rages.
Her guts and fire had always amused and amazed him, even when he’d wanted to put her through a wall for not listening to him, or refusing to hide when it was the more prudent thing to do. In all his life, he’d never loved anyone as much as he’d loved his little sister.
Not even Vine.
But while he might have verbally fought with his sister whenever she pushed the boundaries of his patience and all common sense, by the very gods, no one else was allowed to do such and no one was ever to lay hands to her.
No one.
Not even their father. And he had the scars to prove it.
“What’s all this about?” he asked, indicating her cheek.
Elyzabel glanced away. “’Tis naught. Can I come with you?”
“Elf…” he’d chided, cupping her chin and gentling his tone with her. “Tell me what happened to you, lass.”
She let out a long sigh before she finally screwed her face up and confessed it. “’Twas the beast!”
“Derphin?”
“Nay. The other hairy one I hate most of all.”
“Ilex?”
“Aye! He said a girl wasn’t fit to climb a tree and that I should get back to me mum’s breast before I got hurt. So I climbed the tree to show him what a girl could do, and then he shoved me down and we fought about it.”
Those words had ignited his fuse. “He hit you?”
She nodded.
That had been the first time Devyl had met the part of himself that had made him famous on the battlefield. That cold, unreasoning beast that wouldn’t stop until he had his enemy lying in pieces at his feet, either dead or begging for a mercy he’d never shown anyone save his precious Elyzabel.
Only Elf had ever stayed his furious hand. Only her tears had ever moved him to mercy or compassion.
Until today.
Something about Cameron reminded him of his precious sister, and this tiny chit touched the last shred of a humanity he’d thought had gone to the grave with his Elf.
Sink me.…
Cameron swallowed hard as she met Bane’s fierce, bloody gaze. For the first time, she saw the slightest softening of his demonic countenance. The merest glimpse of a soul beneath the evil.
His grimace lightened as he held one large hand out toward her. “There’s no need in that, lass.”
Refusing to give in to her terror, she forced herself to her feet and fell back on the strength Paden had taught her to stand on after the death of their parents.
Let no one see your weakness, Cam. Ever. We are Jacks, by God. And Jacks don’t buckle or fold.
In it for a half-pence. In it for a pound.
For that matter, she was in this whole matter way over her head. No way out now. Hell, or high water.
Or damnation itself.
Whatever it took. She had no choice, except to see it through.
“I still don’t understand why it is you brought me here, Captain.”
“Truth? Neither do I. Other than I fear something quite unholy has taken control of your brother. My experience with such things is that when they happen and the poor bastard who’s held in thrall reaches out to an innocent such as yourself … the consequences are always dire to said innocent, especially when it involves something as important as the trinket in your pocket.”
“It’s not a worthless bauble, then?”
The wind whipped at his wavy black hair while his eyes faded back to their ebony color. He glanced across the stormy sea surrounding them. “Quite the contrary, Miss Jack. Wars have been waged for that bit of gold you keep, and countless throats cut. Tell no one else you carry it. Ever.” He glowered at her. “How your brother managed to get that to you is what puzzles me most.”
“It came in the post.”
He gaped at her as he found that the most incredulous bit of all. As if it defied all reason.
She held her hand up in solemn testimony. “I swear it. I thought it nothing more than a letter that must have been sent before he left on his voyage. I kept it nigh on a fortnight before I could bring myself to open it to read it, and then when I did…”
“Did anything strange happen to you around the time you received it?”
“Other than meeting all of you and the lady Menyara?”
His dark grimace said that he didn’t appreciate her humor.
She softened her own expression to let him know she was teasing. “Nay, Captain. Nothing untoward.” In fact, she’d not had so much as a nightmare since receiving it, which was strange given that she’d had a number of them before it came.
“Very peculiar, indeed.”
Cameron narrowed her gaze on him as he continued to watch the dark waters around them, as if seeking something only he could detect. “What is it that you’re not telling me?”
The red returned to his eyes an instant before he dropped his coat from his shoulders in one fast, graceful shrug and unsheathed his cutlass. “Kalder! Off to port! Sancha, bring a spring upon her cable! They’re coming up our stern!” He took Cameron’s arm and gently nudged her toward William while Kalder jumped over the side, into the sea below. “Seal her to my quarters for the fight.”