Unawakened (37 page)

“That’s not what I want!”

“I am merely serving as the relay, granting you your wish for knowledge at the agreed upon price, Mr. Smith. I have no say in what they demand. Will you make another wish? You want something very difficult to obtain.”

He stared at the octopus, sighed, and said, “I wish to learn who can grant me the wish of having her all to myself for as long as she lives, and I offer a choice of cargo, of anything on this ship other than me, and two days of my service and loyalty in payment.”

Apparently, Kenneth Smith had sacrificed his common sense to create his dae. I groaned at his idiocy, wondering how such a complete moron had become so influential in Baltimore.

 
At least he had made the attempt to word his wish in a slightly more favorable fashion—for him. I clenched my hands, glaring at the thieving octopus who had stolen my gun. “Give that back so I can shove it up his ass and fire,” I hissed through gritted teeth so my boss wouldn’t hear.

The octopus wrapped around my face silenced me with its tentacle again. I tried to bite it, but while it was slimy, it was like trying to chew on a steel cable wrapped in rubber.

“Israfil. He would grant you your wish, but at the price of you and your dae transforming into kittens in both body and mind whenever you are in her presence. Should either one of you approach within fifty feet of her, you will be so cursed.” Samael coughed, and I heard the laughter in his voice. “Orange kittens.”

I tried to imagine Kenneth Smith as a kitten and lost all grip on my dignity, rolling as I clutched my stomach, unable to voice my laughter thanks to the octopus stuck to my face. Once again, when my broken nose couldn’t handle my lungs’ demand for air, the tentacle lifted enough for me to gasp for breath. “Kittens,” I wheezed.

“I have laid claim over one object on board this ship and have added two days of time to your owed loyalty and service. Do you care to make another wish? Israfil’s offer is quite generous.”

“That is not having her all to myself!”

“Is it not? Kittens hold the hearts of their human keepers, do they not? You would have her attention, and I’m sure she’d take very good care of you. Perhaps if you are a kitten, she might forget your betrayal of her. Or not. The whispers on the wind tell me she is not so quick to forgive.”

Never was a long time, and I had zero intentions of harboring even a thought of forgiveness for Smith’s crimes.

“Again, again! Grant me my wish again. Do it, Samael. I demand it.”

“You would dare demand anything of
me
? You, a pitiful bonded who has no understanding of the value of your wishes? Do you not understand you desire the will and body of another? The price must match the wish.”

“She’s always been mine, right up until that fiend took her from me.”

“Will you make another wish? You may want to before the chance is lost to you. The dae willing to barter with you lack patience. You are not the only one who seeks what you do.”

I turned my full attention to the octopus holding my gun. “Please give it back.”

Sliding its way across the floor, leaving inky streaks in its wake, the octopus left the gun with its special bullet within my reach.

I wrapped my fingers around the grip, double-checked the safety, and wiggled closer to the hole in the floor. “I’d tell your friends down there they might want to clear out.”

“Time’s up, little bonded. Have a nice day. Do come calling if you’re ready to deal.” Samael laughed, and before the sound faded, he vanished in a burst of seawater. In the glow of the fading light, I took aim at Kenneth Smith and fired.

Light blossomed and mushroomed below, accompanied by a wave of heat and pressure. Metal creaked, and before I could do more than recoil, the floor collapsed beneath me and dumped me into darkness.

Chapter Twenty-Four

I hit the crates below hard enough the breath whooshed out of my lungs. My ears rang and throbbed with my heartbeat, and my entire body ached from the impact with the steel cargo container.

“I’ve really got to stop falling from things,” I groaned, rolling onto my stomach so I could get to my hands and knees. “At least I didn’t hit face first this time.”

The octopus wrapped around my face clung to me with all eight of its tentacles. At least I hadn’t ended up with a slimy blindfold or a sucker up my broken nose. Shaking my head, I squinted in my effort to see in the darkness. While there had been light in the hallways, it had been extinguished. Water gurgled nearby, and the groan of strained metal accompanied the sway of the cargo containers beneath me.

I had no idea what the bullet bomb had done, but I really didn’t like sounds of water below me. I’d been on the shore during a storm often enough to recognize the surge of the river entering places it wasn’t supposed to.

“Think the bastard survived that?” I muttered.

The octopus squeezed my head, and I was proud of myself for not flailing and screaming.

“I’ll take that as a no, because that’s what I want to hear.”

It blew bubbles in my ear; I squealed at the rush of air against my hurting eardrum. I tried to get a hold on the slippery thing, but each time I got my hands on its body, it slimed its way out of my grip.

I ended up with the octopus’s body sitting on top of my head like a hat, its appendages tangled around my throat, in my hair, and covering most of my face. I sighed and decided I could peel it off
after
I got off the ship.

I was grateful it avoided my broken nose.

Too bad the river wasn’t as considerate. Icy water sprayed against me, and I shuddered as it soaked through my clothes. I was shivering within moments and had no doubt Netzach’s warning had been reality. If I fell in the water, knowing how to swim wouldn’t save me. The water temperature alone would kill me.

The only thing I didn’t know was how long it would take.

Staggering to my feet, I reached up to feel for the hole above. My fingers swiped through empty air.

“Fuck.”

Unless I figured out a way to get off my haphazard perch and to the upper floors—and the deck—I’d join the ship at the bottom of Baltimore’s harbor, tens upon tens of feet below. Without any light, I didn’t dare to move much. All it would take was one misstep for me to end up in the water flooding the ship.

The crate lurched beneath me, and a startled shriek burst out of my throat as the whole thing bobbed and bounced, flattening me to the water-slicked metal. The swaying sent me sliding down as I scrambled for purchase, the crate’s metal grooves slicing my fingers. My feet splashed into churning water and went numb moments within being soaked.

I pulled myself up and flattened against the metal, my teeth chattering together. I splayed my fingers against the frigid shipping container, searching for a handhold. One of the metal ribs had roughened edges, and I gripped it as tight as I could.

For a moment, I thought it’d even work, but the river had other plans for the ship. The tear of metal heralded a thunderous roar of water, and the world flipped upside down.

Water closed over my head. I screamed at the shock of the cold enveloping my body. At least, I tried to scream. A tentacle squeezed over my lips and kept any sound from emerging while also preventing water from flooding into my mouth. Pain lanced through my head when the octopus constricted around my broken nose.

Panic smothered my ability to think of anything other than struggling in the water as it cloaked me in impenetrable, freezing darkness.

Something coiled around my ankle, squeezed with crushing force, and pulled me deeper into the water. I kicked in my effort to escape only to end up with my feet bound together. A stabbing in my calf shot up my leg, and when the jolting pain reached my head, every muscle in my body stiffened and froze, leaving me to drift in the current.

The numbness sweeping through me dulled the fire in my air-starved lungs. A hard yank at my hair anchored me to consciousness, and the cold bite of the winter wind against my face startled a gasp out me.

The gasp led to a body-wracking cough, and water splashed into my mouth, frigid and salty. I choked on it, spitting as much of it out as I could. The octopus’s tentacles shifted around my neck, tangling in my hair and forcing my head back.

Snow shimmered in the haze of an obscured moon. Was floating how someone swam? Movement should have been required, but my legs were weighed down, as were my arms, and I couldn’t feel anything beyond the stab in my nose and the chill of the water crashing in waves around me. Was there ice on the river? I hadn’t remembered any floes bobbing on the white caps. The back of my head rested against something solid—too solid to be the sea.

It wasn’t squishy enough to be an octopus. My tentacled attachment remained perched on top of my head, slapping its rubbery appendages against my face as though it was trying to keep me awake.

Maybe I was already dead—or dying—and was hallucinating bobbing in the river. It made as much sense as any other theory. I couldn’t swim, and I had fallen into the winter-chilled harbor with an octopus stuck to my face.

I should have just used the regular gun and riddled Kenneth Smith’s body with holes instead of blowing him—and the hull of the stupid ship—to pieces. Was the afterlife really just a continuation of life without having a real body?

I wasn’t even cold any more, which I liked. Without my teeth chattering and my arms and legs jerking in chill-induced spasms, floating wasn’t too bad. I would’ve liked it a lot better if my nose wasn’t throbbing with my heartbeat.

Dead bodies weren’t supposed to have heartbeats. The nagging pain in my nose was definitely throbbing in rhythm with my heart and doing a stellar job of distracting me from the warmth seeping through me from my upper back, shoulders, and neck.

The octopus slapped me hard enough flashes of white danced in my vision.

Something brushed against my legs, and I jerked in a feeble attempt to escape it, kicking out at whatever it was. Visions of skeletons clawing at me and dragging me back into the water choked off my breath.

A wave crashed over my head. When I surfaced, the moonlight reflected on the harbor’s retaining wall. A second wave slammed me into it, smashing my shoulder into the barricade hard enough my teeth rattled in my head.

The current should have swept me back into the river and carried me out to the ocean. Instead, it pounded me into the concrete, knocking the air out of my lungs. Something anchored me to the wall, and I gasped out each time the waves battered me.

I couldn’t tell how many seconds, minutes, or hours went by before a pair of hands grabbed me under my arms and hauled me out of the water. The octopus shifted away from my head, slithering down my arm to wrap itself around my wrist.

Coughing and spluttering, I curled on the dock, shudders coursing through me. Fingers brushed against my throat, so hot on my chilled skin I cried out.

“Get him dry and warm. I’ll take care of Alexa,” Sullivan ordered over my head, glaring at someone—or something—behind me. “Yes, I know, wear gloves or minimize contact. Don’t you even glare at me. I’ll throw you right back into the river and dunk you a few times. I’ll have Netzach sit on you. I’ll skin you and stitch you back together again. You’re a pain in my fucking ass.”

“You’re still a virgin,” I mumbled. “I’m not. Netzach will eat you first.”

The vampire turned his glare on me and continued to rant and rave, his threats growing more colorful with each passing moment, although he didn’t direct a single one at me. I fought to catch my breath, wondering who had stoked Sullivan’s wrath.

Whoever he was, he remained silent. My teeth chattered so much I had to clench them together to keep my head from rattling off my shoulders. While Sullivan continued his monologue, he peeled me out of my jacket, tossing it to the side.

The octopus skittered over me, refusing to be dislodged although it stayed out of the way so Sullivan could strip me out of my soaked clothes. Nudity in the depths of winter was tantamount to suicide, but before the wind could freeze the water on my skin, the vampire wrapped me in a blanket, which was so hot I hissed as it woke every nerve in my body.