Free MERCILESS (The Mermen Trilogy #3) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff Page B

gentle shake. He was dead to the world again, his breathing now shallow pants, like his body was giving one last fight.
    She was out of time.
    Liv grabbed her backpack and flashlight and rushed from his room, downstairs and out the front door, sprinting toward the mountain. It was about a quarter mile through fallen trees and branches in the darkness.
    The entire way there was that feeling again of someone watching her. You’re not dead, are you, Crazy Dirt? You’ve just been waiting for me to show up, begging for his life . And now the island was going to get what it wanted.
    “Okay!” Liv bolted inside the cavern, pivoting on her heel. “I’m here, Crazy Dirt. Tell me how to save Roen!”
    Silence.
    “For fuck’s sake, I know you’re there. I can feel your creepy fucking vibe all around me. What do you want? I’ll do anything. Anything.” Liv wiped the tears from her eyes, panting like mad. “Please.”
    “Hello, human. I’ve been waiting for you…”
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
    The island’s words confirmed Liv’s fears. They were all nothing but giant rats in a giant maze. Crazy Dirt had been, in fact, waiting patiently for this moment. Liv could hear the sadistic delight in Crazy Dirt’s voice.
    “Let’s get it over with. What do you want?” Liv snarled.
    “It’s not about what I want—it’s about what you want. Water, yes?” she said with a sugary-sweet, evil tone. She knew she’d won and was savoring the moment. But what did she win? “ I fear, however, I’ve been weakened. And since the mermen don’t give to me willingly, then I must take what I need.”
    The voice was coming from somewhere inside the cavern, but Liv couldn’t determine the direction.
    “Roen is dying, so there’s no time for your cryptic bullshit. What do you want?”
    “For you and I to have a talk.” The floor crumbled beneath her, and Liv screamed, clawing at the air as she fell, landing with a splash in a bright green glowing pool.
    Liv’s head broke through the surface for a breath and then she saw them. Male bodies. Floating in the water. She screamed at the top of her lungs.
    “Now, now, Liv. A girl’s gotta eat,” the voice said coyly.
    Liv swam as fast as she could and pulled herself up onto a narrow stone ledge that hugged the dripping walls. Her skin buzzed and tingled, but her stomach was a nauseous knot. Five men floated in that glowing green water, one of them face up. It was that old shriveled bastard Naylor, the elder who’d ordered her to be executed.
    “What the fuck?” Liv pressed her back against the wet wall. Well, now I know what happened to the five elders.
    “Don’t be so weak, human.”
    “What did you do to them?” Liv asked.
    “They sacrificed themselves to keep me alive a little longer.”
    She doubted they’d done it voluntarily, although who knew? “So…what? You sucked the life right out of them?”
    “Something like that.”
    Oh, God. She’s going to kill me, too . Liv turned her head, looking around the cave. There was a small opening in the wall across the water. She guessed it led outside. She also guessed she would have to get back into that water to get out of there because the ledge she stood on didn’t go all the way around. Then she heard a weird grinding sound above. Liv looked up and watched the floor of the Great Hall—which was the ceiling of the small cave she stood in—slowly close itself. Rock by rock.
    “This isn’t happening,” Liv whispered to herself.
    “But it is, Liv. It is happening.”
    Liv moved her gaze around the small cave, the green light of the water bouncing and sparkling off the dark gray walls. “Where are you?”
    “I do not have a body.”
    “Then how can I be hearing you?”
    “Because I’m powerful, and reaching inside you is child’s play for someone as magnificent as me.”
    Magnificent. That didn’t seem like the right word. Dangerous. Mysterious. Impossible. Sadistic. Manipulative. Parasitic. Those were all words Liv would