Crimson Rapture (21 page)

She
shifted restlessly as the familiar disturbing images surfaced unwillingly in
her mind. She saw Justin breaking the colonel's leg with brute strength; Justin
carrying her forcibly from the
Defiant;
Justin firing a pistol through
sheets of rain to kill a man; Justin turning on her with a violent eruption of
anger; Justin over John with a dagger; Justin kicking a drunken man once and
that man's lifeless body beneath Justin's dark shadow...

The
words echoed through her thoughts, "He's not the first and I daresay he's
not the last."

How
many other lifeless bodies have fallen beneath his shadow?

A
dream spun from a young girl's heart slipped into her consciousness and she saw
herself as she always imagined she would be. She was married, perhaps to a
surgeon or reverend or even a scholar. Life contentedly followed a predictable
pattern; days to nights, weeks to years, the peacefulness of this life happily
interrupted by picnics and outings and church, celebrations of the birth of
children, Michaelmas, May Day, and the like. A happy home filled with warmth
and love and peace. Peace...

Christina
was only vaguely aware of the tears slipping down her cheeks as sleep finally
stole this— the last sliver of her consciousness.

"I
can't find my brush anywhere," Christina said as she sat alongside Hanna
in the warm sand the next afternoon. She began the struggle to get the comb
through a long mess of tangles.

"I
'ope it's not buried in this sand—you'll never lay eyes on it again."

"I
was certain I placed it back in the trunk. I asked Elsie but she hasn't seen it
either. Honestly, if I lost it, I'll have to spend half the day in company with
the comb—oh, look at them," she finished in the same breath.

Justin,
Jacob, and a handful of others were playing a ball game—with a coconut shell—in
the lagoon. The game was lively and aggressive, the shouts, mostly curses,
could be heard for miles. Beau ran up and down along the shore barking encouragement.
It was as much fun to watch as it was to play and Hanna and Christina soon
found themselves laughing and cheering.

Hanna
laughed as Jacob dunked Eric, only to get bested by Justin and Brahms as his
back turned. She rolled onto her stomach, stretched lazily beneath the warm
sun, and with dreamy eyes, stared into the dark forest a few feet away.

"Oh
Christy," she whispered, "sometimes I don't think any soul 'as a
right to such 'appiness. If only me mum could see me—wouldn't she be
proud?" She laughed. "Fancy 'er only daughter planning' to wed a sea
captain! Who'd ever believe it?"

Christina
smiled and turned from the game, stretching out on her stomach too. The two
women took to whispering between themselves; intimacies coming effortlessly
with Hanna as though they had always been sisters or relations to each other.

The
conversation quieted and Hanna seemed to drift into a light sleep. Christina
sighed contentedly, closed her eyes, and listened to the distant shouts of the
men's game—now in the form of water races. She felt that ever-so-pleasant
exhaustion from basking beneath the sun and she drifted into a light sleep
herself until... until—

Something
brushed against her leg.

Cool
and moist... She stirred, started to turn and suddenly, with no other warning,
the sting of razor-sharp teeth sank into her leg and she screamed. Hanna bolted
up in the instant and saw only the lizardlike creature upon Christina, a
creature found only in nightmares. Smaller by feet than an alligator, but with
jaws as vicious as any shark, the creature was but a frenzy of snapping jaws
and she was screaming and screaming, they were both screaming, as Hanna
helplessly, desperately grabbed Christina's arm in a futile effort to escape.

Justin
was moving before he knew what it was, before he knew it was her, before he saw
the horror of it. He fell onto the beach running and, then seeing it, her name
burst through him like an explosion of lightning. Already running feet ahead of
Justin, Beau could not see it but he smelled blood and heard screams; he would
defend—defend to the death.

Christina
didn't know anything but the merciless snapping of jaws to her flesh. Her arms,
legs, her whole body thrashed, convulsed, becoming one scream to get it off, to
stop it. Then red, red on green and her blood was everywhere.

Reaching
the spot first and with vicious speed, Beau pounced on the creature. The dog
snatched a long tail into his mouth and bit down with all his strength, trying
to tear it away from her. The creature briefly turned its jaws to snap at this
but in a flash of an instant it returned to its first victim, now nothing but
an indiscriminate snapping of jaws.

Followed
by half a dozen men, Justin raced upon the scene just as Beau bit into the
creature's back. The creature turned to snap at the dog and Justin, having no
weapon, without a thought landed on the creature to seize the chance. He
grabbed the jaws in his hands and using an unnatural strength fueled by
adrenaline, he held on for his life. It was John who moved in a sudden rush and
joined his strength with Justin's to force the jaws back. For a moment time
stopped. The creature hung between them, every muscle in the men's bodies
flexed. Teeth punctured fingers clean through. Slowly, inch by inch, the mouth
was forced apart. Suddenly, mercifully, the jaws snapped back; blood spurted
briefly from a deep recess of its mouth. It was dead.

In
the next instant Justin had lifted Christina up and into his arms.

Hot
stinging pain shot through her, seeming to come from everywhere except her one
leg. She pressed herself against him, burying her face to stop her cries. One
leg shook uncontrollably but otherwise she held rigidly still, afraid to move
or look, afraid she had lost her leg.

"It's
all right, it's all right... it's over," Justin whispered as much to
himself as to her. But it wasn't all right, it was far from all right, and he
shouted to everyone gathered around staring in helpless shock, "For God's
sakes someone get Cajun!"

He
looked at her wounds for the briefest of moments and saw only blood. He shut
his eyes to it but felt the warmth of her life covering the moisture of his
skin. He shouted again for Cajun. His eyes were closed though and he didn't
know that Cajun was already there, assessing the situation at a glance, acting
without words.

Cajun
carefully wiped off her leg. He held a cloth to the worst wound and knew at
once that like glass cuts, the wounds looked far worse than they actually were.
She would live if he stopped the bleeding in time.

Cajun's
orders came with a quick assurance that brought everyone relief. Everyone moved
at once, scattering to do Cajun's bidding. Justin snapped to and carried
Christina swiftly to their cave. The men all set off for water, both salt and
fresh. This one reed plant was needed to strip into threads for stitches. Hanna
was too shaken to move. Elsie, who had come running at the first screams, set
off for Cajun's medicines and to fetch some other rubber plant leaves. Jacob
was told to follow Justin.

Once
in the cave, the skylight was lifted and bright afternoon sun flooded in from
above. Justin became aware of everything at once. He had been whispering
meaningless words of comfort to her the whole time. She had dug her nails into
his arm, her teeth in his shoulder, all, he suddenly realized, to stop herself
from crying out in pain. And it had to be a lot of pain, for her better leg was
shaking uncontrollably.

Operating
with his intuitive gifts and keen understanding of all things medical, Cajun,
too, was acutely conscious of her pain.

She
would have to be knocked out.

Justin
watched Cajun's fist clench in a silent signal that he was to hit her. He
looked back at Christina. Her pain... her pain... Yet he could not do it. Not
even to save her.

"I
can't."

"You
must."

Justin
hesitated, then tried to shift her. Her nails dug in harder and she cried in a
gasp of pained whispers, "No, don't let me go... please—"

"Christina,
I have to... Just for a moment—"

She
cried out again, weakly struggling to press harder against him. Not altogether
coherent, all she knew was the sharp memory of not being able to get it off
her. She was safe in his arms. Justin saw this and he looked at Cajun and Jacob
for help.

Neither
man had ever seen him helpless, as he was now.

Jacob
and Cajun exchanged glances and Jacob stepped forward. With both alarm and
urgency, he shouted once. "Christy!"

Christina
jerked her head around with a gasp, expecting to see it or her leg or she knew
not what, and in that instant, Cajun's fist hit her head.

Justin
stared in shock, for it seemed Cajun had barely touched her and yet she went
out. That was all it took. Relief swept through him. Relief that she was
unconscious. Relief that he hadn't hit her, for he would not have known how
little it took.

* * * * *

She
first felt it brush against her, cool and moist, and before she could move, she
felt the vicious biting. She bolted up with a scream, arms and legs thrashing
to get it off... get it off—

And
almost in the same instant, his arms came tight around her. "I've got
you... I've got you. It's only a dream, a dream..."

She
collapsed all at once against him, trembling and scared, just scared. It took
several long minutes but with the security of his arms and the gentle coaxing
of his voice, she began to calm down at least enough to feel her leg and arm
wrapped tight in bandages and the dull sting of multiple cuts.

"My
leg..." she whispered. She couldn't feel it. "Is my leg—" she
couldn't finish.

"It's
fine, you're fine. Cajun stitched you up good." He smiled at her, looking
with tenderness and concern. "Here, drink this. It will help the
pain," and like the first time she woke in his arms, he reached behind her
and handed her a coconut shell. "My men volunteered the last of their rum.
Drink it quick, without tasting."

She
did as he bid and, with her eyes closed, she swallowed and swallowed, not
feeling the hot liquid until it burst like fire in her stomach. She coughed but
managed to keep it down and almost immediately she felt its warmth spreading
through her.

"Better?"

She
nodded, tried to smile.

"Does
it hurt much?"

She
shook her head.

"Liar."
His hand brushed tenderly through the long hair. It had taken a good hour of
washing to get all the blood out. "Do you remember what happened?"

She
closed her eyes. "Only not being able to get it... off, to stop it. I
remember you grabbed it, and then John—what was it?"

"We
don't really know. Much like an alligator, only smaller and about a hundred
times more vicious. Samuel claims he once overheard some men talking of
alligator hunting, when another man mentioned a rare creature that lives on the
South Sea islands, like an alligator or a giant lizard, as yet even
unnamed."

Justin
stopped short of the rest of the story: that a ship sailed to the islands to
get fresh food supplies, stopping for just overnight. Two men, land starved,
chose to sleep on the beach. Their screams alerted the crew but by the time the
crew reached the beach, all that was found was this lizardlike creature
devouring the remains of two bodies.

"I
had my men pound through the bush looking for others like it but nothing was
found."

"Beau?
Is Beau all right?"

At
the sound of his name, Beau rose from the foot of the bed and came to
Christina's side, thumping his tail in greeting. "He's fine, just a few
cuts," Justin replied. Both he and John had puncture wounds through their
fingers to attest to the creature's frightening strength. Beau's thick fur had
protected him far better than their mere skin.

Christina
shifted to pet him and Justin felt a shiver go through her. Cajun had said
having lost so much blood, she'd likely be chilled upon waking, and that it was
important to keep her warm.

Elsie
had gone in search of the only blanket on the island and eventually found it in
Carolyn Knolls's possessions. Despite the circumstances, the woman refused to
turn the item over. Elsie had to call him to forcibly take it from her. Justin
was beginning to wonder if there was no limit to that woman's malevolence.

"Are
you very cold?" he asked, tucking the blanket around her.

She
nodded, staring to shiver uncontrollably.

"Here,
drink another cup of this." He pressed a coconut shell to her lips, which
she drank from thirstily, finding the rum mixed with milk this time. Then she
tried to press herself even closer to his warmth. Justin brought his leg
protectively over her and embraced her tightly.

"Don't
ever let me go," she whispered on the edge of sleep.

"Never."

* * * * *

Christina,
comfortably nestled in Justin's arms, tried to follow the conversation between
Justin and Jacob. It sounded important. The small effort proved taking; she
felt exhausted and, staring into the amber coals of the campfire, she found
herself drifting into that pleasant consciousness—not quite sleep but not
wakefulness either.