CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Valdez
“You good?” Kenai asked as I slammed the truck door. Zom bounced around his calves.
“No. Let’s get this done.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
We walked in silence, side by side, down the iced gravel to the dock. I didn’t like how little light we had. Despite being the last night of the full moon, it was too dark. The clouds that foretold the snow cut jagged shapes across the face of the moon. Even the light from the lamp posts was muted by the misty halos. I saw the dark boat house. As we rounded the edge of the holding area for the fishing pots, I saw the boat for the first time.
The blue and black boat rose and fell on the lull of the tide. On a particular large swell, the boat tipped enough that I saw the name of the boat emblazed in golden rod yellow across the blue paint.
Gypsy Star.
“That's Pop’s boat,” I breathed as I stopped cold. The words stuck in my throat as a wave of nausea overcame me. I wanted to run, far and fast. I had never seen the boat our father had gone missing from.
That was a ghost I’d never wanted to confront.
“Yeah. I don't like it either. Pretty sure Brooks is going to try to pin this on us.”
“Revenge for River?” I shouldn’t have brought it up, but it needed to be said.
“Yep.” His voice was flat, his eyes trained on the boat.
“We should walk away. This has disaster written all over it.”
“Yep.”
We kept going. Neither one of us would pass up the opportunity for a bit of closure. We’d deal with the aftermath later. If anyone was going to destroy the boat, it was going to be us. It didn’t matter that it had been ten years after our father’s death. They’d come to our doorsteps first.
“Should have told you to call Koda,” I said off handedly as I watched the blue hunk of metal dotted with rust gently rock on the water.
“I did. She wanted nothing to do with it.” Kenai’s forearm flexed as he clenched his fists, his stark red and black tattoos came alive as the bones in his hands rippled beneath the skin. He looked every bit the intimidating predator he was trying to portray, decked out in black and denim as we kept walking toward impending doom.
“So, we’re burning the Gypsy Star. We should have done this long ago.” Even as I spoke the words, I could barely believe it.
“We’re not burning it. We’re blowing it up.”
He lifted the duffle bag in his left hand to emphasize the point as we kept to the shadows. Our footsteps reverberated off the water, but there was nothing we could do about that.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Yeah. You go on the boat and plant the explosives. I’ll keep the vampires out here under control. I don’t want to set foot on that boat.” My brother’s voice was calm; words tight and measured. The icy stillness was already slinking across his face as he took in everything around us.
I didn’t want him on that boat either.
He passed me the duffle bag and reached for his own gun.
“Make sure Brooks doesn’t have anything on us before you blow it,” he managed, eyes turning toward the ocean. “Office is up by the wheelhouse.”
I nodded. “Don’t get bit.”
Easier said than done when you’re on your own with vampires.
“Same to you.”
Kenai disappeared in to the shadows before I could say another word. He would be headed toward the maze of stacked fishing pots we’d passed on our way in. A cold shiver of fear raced up my spine as Zom threw his weight on my leg. The pit in my stomach sunk deeper, and there were spikes at the bottom of it. Something wasn’t right.
I turned my eyes toward the speckled sky. Red auroras danced across the darkness like blood on wet pavement. I trembled as fear stroked its fingers along the back of my neck in gentle caresses. I didn’t like being in bed with fear. She was not my mistress. I shook off those cold touches, filling my lungs with the heavy night air.
We were willingly walking in to a trap, and I’d asked him to find the job. But we were in too deep to get out of it. Those vampires still needed taken care of.
The old prayers my grandfather had taught me fell from my lips. I didn’t even realize I still remembered them, but my soul knew. And I’d take any help our ancestors could provide.
I had no idea what I was doing.
I shouldn't have been in the boat. It was deathly quiet as I moved around on it. Not a good plan. I wasn't a sailor. I didn't have the first clue what led where, and I didn't have an abundance of time. Someone would come back to the boat eventually.
Or I’d run in to a vampire first.
It was by chance I stumbled upon Brooks’ office. I tore through his desk, searching for anything that would incriminate us while my dog waited at the door. I dumped the bottom desk drawer on the floor. The dull thud didn’t correspond with the avalanche of papers. I nudged at the papers with my boot.
My heart stopped when I uncovered a black sheathed blade.
My fingers trembled as I reached for the knife. My trembling turned to disbelief as I turned the work of art over in my hand. I knew every crevice and pit on that piece of steel. I knew every carved line in the caribou antler handle. I traced every line in every star engraved on the side of the blade, scared to breathe.
That was my father's knife.
How long had Brooks had it? Why had he not returned it to us with the rest of my father’s belongings?
The boat rocked and groaned. I had a job to do. I could stare dumbfounded at the piece of my past later. I slipped my father’s knife in to the empty sheath on my belt. It was a bit of a balm to have a blade at my side again.
I moved below deck, back to what I assumed was the engine room, and set up the explosives Kenai had given me.
As I taped the last charge in place below the water line, a knock came from the other side of the steel hull.
I did what any sane person would do. I knocked back.
The knocking came again.
The night kept getting better and better. I scrambled back on deck. Splashes and wet slaps against the hull echoed in the silent night. I pulled my gun as I peered over the side.
Two darkened figures were half submerged in the icy water. Then I saw tails breaking the top of the water.
Mermaids.
I had seen mermaids before, but I had never seen any humanoid sea creature look like these fish. Moonlight danced in the iridescence of their skin, but in the shadow of the boat, it was hard to determine their true color. As they moved in the water, I caught glimpses of spiny fins running along their forearms and down their backs. A tail broke the water and was nearly six-foot-wide, the fins trailing in streamers like that of a lion fish.
That same frilly tail slapped the side of the boat to get my attention.
“We know who you are, Sesi. Your name gets around,” it hissed up at me, the light shimmering blue off its skin. It had a mass of intricate tattoos that covered half its upper torso and part of its face. “The seal told us you have one of ours. We are here to claim him.”
“Guess you don't know as much as you think. My family doesn’t take hostages.”
“This is not something to be joked about.” The nearly plum colored merman growled up at me. “Turn him over or tell us where we can find him.”
“Gotta give me more than that, fishes.”
“He bears the queen’s mark, human,” the first one growled, rising a bit more out of the water.
“And that means what to me?” The hair on the back of my neck stood up. It was pointless to shoot them. They were in the water. I wasn’t an easy target. “So, what are you; bounty hunters?”
“Queen’s guards. The blue merman struck the side of the boat, sending a resounding metallic clang through the harbor. It sounded like a dinner bell to any vampires in the area. “We want the traitor to the crown; the one who supplies our Blue Market with delicacies.”
Blue market. I hadn’t heard that term in years. Mermaid version of the black market.
“Gotta be a bit more specific with what you mean by delicacies.”
The purple merman snorted at me, the fins on his arms flaring and contracting in his impatience. The tattoo on his face shifted colors in the moonlight. He didn’t have nearly the number of tattoos as his companion. “Humans, you fool. He gives us human bodies, and we feast like the old days.”
My eyes narrowed at them. “You’re looking for Caleb Cayce?”
“We don't care what name he goes by. We want the usurper and his spawn back.”
That put a new twist on my disdain for the fish.
Zom growled behind me, but I wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way. I was forced against the rail from behind, wrist slamming in to the metal as I tried to keep my balance. My arm went numb, gun falling from my hand and on to the deck.
“Come on, hunter,” it snapped at me as I turned to face them. “You can do better than that. I should just make you a snack. Get him.”
“You're right. I can do better.” In my peripheral vision, I saw one vampire on either side of me.
I whistled for Zom. The bloodsucker to the left of me howled as my dog bit down on the back of his calf and began to tug. That left me with two.
The vampire on my right lunged at me. The asshole that had thrown me against the railing just laughed. I dodged out of the creature’s direct path, but it caught my arm. It ripped away the sleeve of my black hooded sweatshirt as I struggled against it. I was firmly in its grasp as its teeth sank into my forearm. The burning pain made my muscles contract and twitch as if electricity ran through it.
The vampire tried to throw its head like my dogs did when shaking a toy, its fangs were still in my arm. I felt my flesh give way, my vision flashed white. The sickening slurp of the thing drinking from my arm sent adrenaline pumping through my veins.
I yanked my father's knife from my belt and wrapped myself behind the vampire, its fangs still in my arm. I refused to be canned dog food for a werewolf, and I sure as hell was not about to be a fresh piece of meat for a vampire. My father's blade tasted blood for the first time in a decade as I shoved it in to the thing’s neck. With all my strength, I dragged the knife through its flesh, separating its head from its body. The hallucinogenic vampire blood poured over my bare skin and in to the open wound. The adrenaline coursing through me wouldn’t be enough to counter the vampire blood hallucinogen effects, but it bought me a bit of time.
I tossed the head over the side of the boat. Zom growled behind me. He was covered in ash and goo. He’d managed to take down and shred the vampire he had attacked. He had managed to keep the vampire that had first attacked me in check while I reoriented myself.
But my advantage was gone.
It charged me.
I dove for the gun I had dropped. I managed to get three rounds squeezed off at point blank range.
As it flopped on me, unmoving, I could assume only one thing. I’d hit my mark. Blood coated my face and shirt as the thing lay limp atop me. I’d never wished for vampires to instantly turn to dust as much as when one had me pinned beneath it.
From my position seated against the railing of the boat, I heaved the dead vampire off me and over the railing. I heard the splash and the shout from the mermen. A head had been one thing, but I guess a whole body was too much for them.
“That is not who we want, Sesi! There will be no more warnings!” they bellowed at me.
“Bite me, fishes.”
Zom grabbed the arm of the one he had torn the throat out of and tried to drag it toward the railing. My dog had heart, but not the strength.
I leaned over to help him with the body, and caught movement out of the corner of my eye on the dock.
Son of a bitch. That was not good.
Kenai was climbing the stack of crab pots on the dock. I swallowed hard as I saw three vampires climbing up the other side of the stack. I could yell, but it would do nothing. He wouldn’t hear me from that distance. All I could do was watch and hope he saw them in time.
Zom growled as he chewed on the vampire he had been dragging as I got to my feet and walked to the other side of the deck. I couldn’t even risk taking a shot from that distance as the ship lulled up and down on the waves.
My brother’s crazy laugh echo across the harbor followed quickly by his unmistakable howl. I closed my eyes and prayed for the second time that night. I didn’t want to watch him go down like Pop had watched Uncle Ray.
“Pity to meet you this way, Sesi.”
Zom barked and bound over to me, putting himself between me and the green man as I tried to back away. I wouldn’t be the stammering idiot and ask him who he was. The green tinged, rope scared skin gave it away.
“Cy.”
A smile curled those scared lips. “At least one of you knows who I am.”
“Why are you here?” My hand tensed around the hilt of my father’s blood soaked knife.
“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m looking for someone.”
“You owe me some answers for going after my family.”
The small tug of his lips made his skin shimmer in the light from the dock lights. “No. I don’t. I owe you nothing. Be thankful I am not here for you.”
“Who are you here for?”
“Just watch. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”
Cy gestured back to the stacks that my little brother was climbing.
“No.” The word passed my lips before I could stop myself.
“I’m not here for him, Sesi. Calm yourself. Watch.”
Kenai made it to the top of the stack and pulled out his pack of clove cigarettes while the vampires climbed behind him. I saw the orange pop of flame spark to life. What the hell was he doing?
With a flick of Cy’s wrist, he sent a ball of flickering orange light toward my brother. It burst into flames as it danced across the rope webbing.
“What the hell?” I hadn’t meant to scream as I grabbed for the edge of the boat. All I could do was watch in horror.
Cy laughed beside me. “I told you to watch.”
My brother took a deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled it in another long howl, head thrown back, throat bare as the flames began to dance closer to him.
“Kenai!” I yelled for him, unable to stop myself. He was going to burn along with the bloodsuckers.
“You look scared, Sesi. Fire can be beautiful.”
“And destructive. You’re going to kill him.”
A smirk slid across that green man's face. “Beautifully destructive, yes. But die? You all die eventually.”
The fire caught rope after rope, climbing higher and higher up the stack. Vampires and thralls wailed as the fire consumed them one by one. They had no place to escape. I watched in disgust as the rope webbing that held my brother burned through, sending him tumbling down to the next level of stacked pots. One by one, they burned. One by one, they all fell in a twisted pile of metal.
I looked away, the hallucinogenic effects of the vampire blood hitting me hard as my heart raced. My stomach churned. I was going to be sick.
“Watch, Sesi,” Cy whispered beside me, his hand on my back.
“Watch him burn? You killed him. There is no way anyone can survive that! I will hunt you next!”
Those cold, green tinged hands spun me to face him. “Should I hold you to your promise?”
“Yes,” I ground out as my eyes stung. I’d hunt every single one of them down and make them pay. The nest would be mine, and so would Cy.
“I think you should watch. I’ve found who I was looking for.”
My head snapped back to the pile of flaming fishing equipment. In the distance, I heard the wail of sirens. Someone had already called it in as the cages crashed to the side. Kenai walked unscathed through the fire, his every step burning briefly with flame before putting itself out. The further he stepped from the massive tower of flame, the less the living flame licked at his body.
“How?”
Cy chuckled beside me. “You’ll have to ask her.”
“Her who?”
“Tsk, tsk, Sesi. You’ll meet her soon enough. She can't stay hidden forever. Why do you expect me to give you all the answers all the time?”
“You’ve given me no answers.”
He gave me a one shouldered shrug. “I don’t recall who I’ve told what anymore. It's been too many millennia.”
“Then answer me one thing,” I ground out. “When you told my siblings there were only three of us left, what did you mean? There are more of us.”
Cy closed his eyes, fingers moving in the air as if he was calculating something. “Three at the time when I spoke to them, yes. But now, the Fates are deciding if they want to give you back four and five.”
“The dead stay dead, Osiris,” I growled, hand clenched at my side. I wouldn't allow myself to hope. They weren't coming back. No one comes back.
His dark eyes twinkled as a forced grin slid across his pale lips. “My, my, the hunter has impressed me. He knows my name. And only the devoured are gone forever. You really should brush up on your mythology.”
Kenai’s wordless scream pulled our gazes toward the burning pyre. We turned in time to see him take the head off a vampire then toss the pieces in the burning stack of fishing pots.
Cy smiled at me, those rope like scars distorting his green hued face. “Oh, the things we do for family.”
Cy was gone just as quickly as he had arrived. The red and blue lights of the squad cars raced up the path to the dock. There was nothing I could do from the deck of the boat to help Kenai. I prayed Chief Matthews was in one of those cars.