Caylen D. Smith - Imperfect Hearts

IMPERFECT HEARTS

Book Three in the Guardian Series

By Caylen D. Smith

Copyright 2016 Caylen D. Smith

Smashwords Edition

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DEDICATION

To Those Who Love the Sea

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, I must thank my mother. You are thereal VIP and always my number one supporter. You deal with thesuper hard work (very painful indeed). Like WOW! Golden sticker.But then there is my Aunt Gina, now that is a VIP too for all herlove and supportmy grandmother is too a VIP. Picking one to be myVIP is actually a hard decision. So, they can hash it out on theirown. Ill rent an arena and all that good stuff. The last onestanding will be the TRUE VIP. That settles it quite well Ibelieve.

Also, I thank the ones who make thispossible, Deborah Raney, the blessed editor, and Daniela Owergoor,the brilliant digital artist. I couldnt have done this without youtwo.

I do thank dearly my other family membersfor reading my series. You support me in your own special way, soyou get a copper star. Love you!

To my friends, as well, who always askquestions and have bright faces whenever they talk to me about mywork and writing this series and others. You make my day.

And lastly, thank you to those specialpeople for picking up this book, and those who have been here sinceAly got her debut. It truly brings joy to my heart. Thank you forthe positive vibes.

CHAPTER ONE

I loved the sea. Just like my mother and hermother before her. And sometimes I believed I was born between thewaves. This separate world is more than water. Its beauty, its vastunknown possibilities. There are two sides of the sea. The firstwas rather the embellished part. As for the other, it is ruthless,unpredictable, and cunning in every way possiblejust like itspeople.

This is pathetic. Look atyourselfcould the captain truly accept such a runt? There, in allhis conniving glory stood one of the most ruthless of them all.Pete. A crew member of one of the notorious pirates of the EightSeas. No sword dwelled in his hand. No sharp tool between hisfingers, only barely bruised knuckles that have struck me time andtime again.

Blood dripped down my nose, and the metallictaste filled my mouth. On my knees, I gripped my stomach andcoughed once as I glanced up to the brightness of the sun. Thesails of crimson colors whipped against the ocean breeze. Thewooden planks groaned from being pelted by the waters below.

All my life, I have known to never trust apirate. My city, the city that raised me to be a pristine woman,knew with all its stone and buildings that a pirate was nothing buta no good thief and scoundrel who cared for no one but the oceanand the glittering of gold.

I wonder, after all this time living in thesame wooden ship with the lot of them, what my people back homewould think of me now.

Weak-kneed, I managed to straighten myselfand spit the excess blood piling between my cheeks. I wiped thedrip slipping down my chin, examining the dark crimson glisteningin the sun. He let you on this ship, so what makes me anydifferent?

True, Pete might be a few years older thanI, but I wouldnt count him the most reliable of pirates to keep upa fight. Though I have heard whispers along the ship of how he wasskilled with a knife or two.

His dark eyes narrowed, and the ocean breezeblew those onyx locks of his. If I didnt know any better, I wouldhave believed he was born as one of the shadow children told of instories during the winter months.

I thought Captain Walkerwanted you to teach her how to handle herself, came a calm voicefrom across the deck. Most of the pirates busied themselves withtheir morning duties, but the one with his dark blond hair tiedback and set jaw seemed not to care about why everyone grewinterested in Pete and me lashing it out so early in the day. Thefirst mate stopped in his tracks and held his hands behind hisback, staring hard at Pete. She is bleedingeverywhere.

This was the most confusing part. To tell ifsome of the pirates on this ship cared for me. For as it would seemwith the first mate, Jon, his main concern was my blood, slippingunwillingly out of my mouth, onto his captains ship.

Pete sneered. These were captainsorders.

I straightened my shoulders, and the heatcrept along my neck. You are playing dirty! How do you expect meto learn anything at all, when all you do is keep that lip of yoursshut and throw punches!

This would not be the first lessons given tome by Pete. It was bad enough that I was not of the malepersuasion, and Pete was taking every advantage of that fact. Ideven heard him grumbling about how unfortunate it was, him havingto deal with a runt on this ship. He knew he had to endure the bestof it since Captain Walkers instructions were to teach me as muchas needed so he didnt have to fish my dead carcass out of thewater if there were to ever be a battle between enemies. Walkermight have agreed to help me find the one person stolen from mebutthis didnt mean I could last a single day on this ship and notcontribute something.

His promise might last for a while with hisfellow pirate, Tamar, now a leader of the gypsies, but for me thatwas a different story.

Sometimes I believe Walker knew of thetension between me and his navigator, Pete. Somewhere on this shiphe enjoyed seeing me collapse over and over again on this rollingsea.

Enough, Alexandria, Jonsaid harshly. I think your lesson with Pete is done for the day.You both can go and continue with your duties.

I pressed my lips together and sent my gazeto Pete who didnt so much as glance my way. How many more dayswill I have to endure this just so I can find

Get going, girl, Petesnapped. Clean yourself up too.

I spat once at his feet. Be careful there.I might actually begin to think you care.

He stalked off, not saying a word, but Icould see the tension in his shoulders, how his muscles contortedwith every step he took farther away from me. Each step, knowing hecouldnt connect his fist to my face. His good behavior with me wasonly so he could continue this training, so he has an open chanceto greet me with his punches. The loathsome pirate.

The first mate stepped closer and handed mea towel.

I took it gratefully and tried to rid myface of the blood and sweat. Yes, as a daughter of the RepublicCity, I have gone through the training courses inside of the livingquarters. But it was nothing from the sorts like this. I neverspilt this much blood. Maybe broken a sweat, or twisted an ankle.But never blood.

Staring at the stains on the towel, for thefirst time, I realized the trembling wasnt the ship against thecurrent, but my own body from the duel. Id had worse. Id beenthrough so much more.

Gripping the worn cloth once more, Iscrubbed at my face. No. I couldnt bring myself to think of suchthings. Those memories were too fresh. The fresh scent of death Idleft back in a small city on the bay.

I breathed in deeply before raising my head.Jon?

He had already begun to secure the lines ofthe ship. I was too inside of my head to notice him focusing on hisown duties.

I see you are makingfriends rather nicely, Alexandria, Jon said with a grunt as hetied the rope. His black eyes fixed on me, and then on to thetowel. Shaking his head, his eyes searched the boat. Maybe Ishould inform the captain