Cassidy Jones and the Luminous (Cassidy Jones Adventures Book 4) (21 page)

I swung my leg around, pushing it through the resistance with everything I had. My knee connected with a solid object, propelling it away.

Emery whipped his dive light around, catching a chubby, balding man in a polo shirt and khaki pants tumbling backward through the water. He disappeared into the recesses where the light couldn’t reach. From the darkness, another female emerged.

I blinked, and in the split second it took for my eyelids to spring open again, her face was inches from mine. Caramel-colored locks slashed around her strong features, the ends getting battered by the bubbles escaping my regulator. Low eyebrows over almond-shaped eyes gave her a sinister appearance. Her assessing eyes were familiar, although, in my fear, I couldn’t place where I had seen them, or her, before.

Another male floated next to her. Peripherally, I saw other faces that Emery and Jared’s beams swept over, confirming we were surrounded. The boys instinctively drew closer to me, reconfiguring in a back-to-back triangular position, so we could better defend ourselves. All the while, I couldn’t break the unrelenting stare of the woman, whom the beast within me recognized as the leader of these aqua people.

A growl rumbled deep in my throat, releasing a mass of bubbles.

Curiosity shone in the woman’s intelligent, golden orbs, as though she’d perceived me to be more than human, too. Her gaze briefly evaluated Emery and Jared, then rejoined mine. Her lips curved with amusement. We were threats that she believed would soon be eliminated.

Dream on!
I brought the dive light down on her skull.

There was a mass of bubbles as the aqua people attacked, their injured leader retreating. I had hurt her, but not badly. The water had cushioned the violent blow.

I threw my fists through the water, using the dive light as a weapon, fending off clawing hands that attempted to rip away our regulators and masks.

Emery and Jared fought blindly, for the most part. Thankfully, their martial arts skills enabled them to anticipate and block strikes. I caught fists flying at them, too, but couldn’t move fast enough to protect the boys fully. There were just too many of the creatures.

The ruckus stirred the sediment, obstructing vision further, and I panicked as I lost sight of Emery and Jared among flying limbs and flashes of enraged faces, exposed by the dive light beams.

If these people don’t kill the boys, fighting them will,
I thought, as Jared’s warnings of water pressure tumbled through my head.
I have to get them out of this—NOW!
I grabbed two aqua people by the hair, cracking their skulls together.

All at once, the aqua people withdrew, forming a loose circle around us.

I released the two people I had rendered unconscious. Their bodies sank like deflated balloons. The water began to settle, and I looked around anxiously for the boys. Jared was a few feet away, heaving breaths, his dive light dangling from a hand, positioned for a fight. Emery was nowhere in sight.

Emery!

Their leader entered the circle. Blood flowing from the gash on her head, she raised her arms, extending them toward the surface, and looked up, as though worshipping a sun god. Her hands began spinning faster and faster, becoming a blur and melding into the water. The motion climbed up her arms until two whirlpools shot from her arm sockets, like unrelenting tornadoes, thrashing through the filthy water. Her chin dropped, and her gaze seared us. Leaping at Jared, I grabbed hold of his BCD jacket as the whirlpools converged, sucking us in. Spinning wildly, I held him, wrapping legs around his waist, feeling the powerful vortex pull at him, trying to tear him away from me.

I won’t let you go
, I vowed, clamping my eyelids shut to try to quell the insane dizziness. It felt as though my guts were being ripped out. The building pressure in my ears was unbearable. If I was feeling this much pain, I couldn’t imagine what Jared was experiencing.

Emery! Where are you?

Cassidy . . .

My eyes popped open to swirling mud. I had distinctly heard Emery’s voice.

I’m drowning . . .

NO!
Unwinding my legs from Jared, I threw our bodies diagonally against the twisting current and kicked my legs like pistons. I thought I wasn’t making progress, but the vortex spit us out, firing us through the water like bullets disengaging from a gun barrel. We plowed headfirst into mud.

Help me . . .

One arm around Jared, I kicked and clawed my free hand through the thick muck until we popped free from the sludge. The water was so dirty that I couldn’t see a thing. It was like being caught in a sandstorm.

Emery, where are you?

Here . . .
His voice sounded weak in my head.

I frantically swam through the dirty water toward where I thought I’d heard Emery’s voice, towing Jared, who had become alarmingly still.

I’ll die if anything happens to either of them.

The sediment began to settle, and I made out a floating silhouette. I prayed it would be a tree limb as I fumbled my dive light at it. My heart sank when the beam revealed a scuba diver trapped underneath a spidery branch, face-down.

Emery wasn’t moving.

The sight of Emery’s lifeless form left me immobile.

This cannot be happening.

Jared struggled against me. My despairing eyes fell to his face. He stared back at me with alarm as he fought to break free from my vice grip. I thought he was panicking, until he pointed at Emery. I snapped out of the shock.

Jared wants me to let him go so I can get to Emery faster. Why am I still here?

I released Jared and shot through the water. Tears of relief cascaded over the brim of my eyes when I saw air bubbles escaping Emery’s regulator, flowing around his dangling head. Unconscious, he miraculously hadn’t lost his regulator. He was breathing. He was alive.

But maybe not for long.

I tugged Emery free from the branches and turned him over, shining the dive light on him. His face was as white as a sheet, his eyes closed. His chest rose and fell rapidly with quick, shallow breaths.

We have to get him to the surface!

Before I had a chance to react rashly, Jared swam under Emery, wrapping his right arm beneath his, and inflated Emery’s BCD jacket just enough to get him into an upright position, while holding Emery’s regulator in his mouth so he wouldn’t lose it. When Emery was vertical, Jared vented a little air out of the BCD jacket, so he and Emery wouldn’t ascend too rapidly. He motioned for me to come up with them at the same speed.

I prayed fervently during the excruciatingly slow ascent. It frightened me beyond words to see Emery unresponsive, his head flopped against Jared’s temple.

It will be okay. It will be fine
.
Please let it be fine
.

I directed the dive light beam down and moved the beam around the sunken forest. There was no sign of Levy, Romero, the aqua people, or their leader. Agitated sediment was the only evidence that they’d been there at all. Fortunate for them, because in my present state of mind, it was difficult to predict how I would react, especially if I saw
her
.

I’ll make her pay
, my feral side growled. The small voice of reason that usually corrected any violent declarations had the good sense to keep quiet. However, it did risk murmuring:
Why didn’t they finish us off?

There was a disturbance in the water. I directed the beam back up to Emery and Jared. Emery’s body convulsed, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. His arms thrashed the water. Jared released Emery’s regulator and held him tightly from behind.

“No!” I screamed into the regulator and reached for Emery.

Jared shook his head for me to stop. I clamped my hands to my skull and squeezed
.

Emery cannot die!

And he can’t lose his regulator
! I resolved.

I ignored Jared’s order to stay away and swam up to Emery. His desperate hands grabbed at me, but he could tear me apart, for all I cared. He wouldn’t lose his regulator. I pressed my hand over it.

All at once, Emery went limp. The seizure had ended. Jared nodded at me, and we began moving upward again, more slowly than before. I kept my hand on Emery’s regulator, wishing I could just see his eyelids flutter open, those twinkling coal orbs look at me. I would’ve given my life for that.

We passed the definitive border from pitch black into scant light, and Emery stopped breathing. My frenzied hands motioned to Jared, alerting him. His thumb pressed the valve on Emery’s BCD jacket, and they rose swiftly. I assumed Jared had decided decompression injuries could be fixed; death couldn’t.

Don’t think that way
, I commanded, choking on my tears. Water rushed into my mask, sweeping away the pool of tears that had collected at the bottom as we broke through the surface.

Jared ripped the regulator from his mouth.

“Take him,” he gasped at me.

Rain pounded the lake. I collected Emery, looping my arms under his armpits. Jared tilted Emery’s head back to my shoulder, pinched his nose, pressed his mouth to his, and breathed in. I felt Emery’s chest expand against my arm, the air released. A breath didn’t follow.

“Have to get him onboard,” Jared gasped and brought his mouth to Emery’s again. Rain pelted us as he continued mouth-to-mouth while I swam Emery to the yacht fifty yards away.

I threw my fins onto the yacht’s deck. “What do I do?” I shouted at Jared, hauling Emery’s dead weight up the ladder. His mouth hung open. His skin was blue. Shaking from head to toe, I pulled him underneath the overhang, out of the rain.

“Get the tank and jacket off.” Jared’s face was calm and focused.

My trembling hands managed to work the clasps. Jared pulled off his mask, dropped down next to Emery, and took off his mask, too. Tilting Emery’s jaw up and pinching his nose, Jared breathed air into his mouth. Emery’s chest rose.

“Check for a pulse,” Jared ordered. He sealed his mouth over Emery’s again, then blew.

I searched Emery’s neck.

“Nothing,” I sobbed.

Straightening up, Jared placed his palms on Emery’s chest, elbows straight, and began chest compressions. I gently clasped Emery’s cold face in my hands and brought my ear to his purple lips.

Breathe
, I prayed, listening.

“ . . . ten, eleven, twelve,” Jared counted under his breath.

I pressed my lips next to Emery’s, whispering against his icy skin, “breathe.”

“Cassidy, move.” Jared pushed my head away, repositioned Emery’s jaw, and began mouth-to-mouth again.

I snapped.

“Breathe, Emery!” I yelled, leaping to my feet. Seizing Emery’s tank off the deck, I ran to the edge and hurled it into the lake.

“I will find you, and I will kill you!” I screamed at the water, completely out of my mind. I ripped the hood off my head, yanking my wet hair with it. Rain hammered my face. “Do you hear me? I WILL KILL YOU!”

Emery gasped a breath. I spun around. He hurled, just as Jared rolled him to his side, having anticipated Emery would throw up.

Seeing Emery alive extinguished my fury. Dissolving into tears, I ran to Emery, skidding up to him on my knees, and hugged his head, burying my face in his wet hair, paying no mind to his vomiting or weak protests. Emery was alive. That was all that mattered.

“Cass, we need to get him down to the cabin. He needs oxygen,” Jared said with a labored breath as he removed Emery’s fins.

“Are you okay?” I demanded, grabbing hold of his face. Why hadn’t I noticed how pale Jared was before?

“Fine.” He waved off my concern. “Can you carry him?”

Emery was already pushing himself up. “I can walk.”

“You will not!” I ducked my head under his arm, grabbed his waist, and stood, bringing Emery to his feet with me. I reached to help Jared up, too, but he was already walking toward the ladder, his back heaving.

“Jared, what’s wrong?” I asked anxiously, tugging Emery along with me. “Are you having trouble breathing?”

“I’m fine,” he insisted, climbing down the ladder.

“You don’t sound
fine
! Is it your lungs?” The boys were breathing and moving, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t sustained decompression injuries.

“I’m fine,” he stated again, helping Emery down the ladder.

“You are not
fine
!” I gripped my hair by the roots and pulled hard in frustration, and jumped into the cabin the moment Jared had cleared Emery away from the ladder.

“Where’s the oxygen?” I snarled, landing in a squat.

“Calm down,” Emery croaked as he lowered himself to the bed. He looked awful! “Everything will be fine.”

“If I hear that word one more time, I’ll scream!”

Emery gave me a weak but stern look.

Jared opened a lower cabinet in the kitchen area. “Here, man.” He tossed Emery a hand towel to wipe his mouth. “Are you doing all right?”

“Yes. You?” Emery fell back on the bed and closed his eyes.

“I’m good,” Jared said, rummaging through the cabinet.

I stood there, helplessly looking from boy to boy, then made haste for Jared.

“Can I help?” I asked in a carefully controlled voice. I had to stop freaking out, even as the beast still growled for me to dive back into the lake and lay waste to the woman who had tried to murder us.

If I ever see her
—

Stop!

“Here, I’ll take that.” I grabbed the emergency oxygen tank from Jared’s hands. I contemplated helping him stand, but figured he’d just wave me off and tell me again that he was fine.

“Let me help you,” I offered Emery, seeing he was in the process of sitting up. He suffered my assistance. What was it with these boys not wanting my help?

Jared’s arm hooked my neck. “Thank you for rescuing me,” he said, resting his cheek in my wet hair.

“Thank you for saving Emery. If you hadn’t been there . . . ” I couldn’t finish.