To Ocean's End (25 page)

“That was a real cheap shot with the harpoon,” I said. “You fight like a coward.” I crossed swords with him as the rest of my crew entered one-on-one combat.

“Serves you right for how you treat my ship,” Tethys said in his gravely voice. “I’m taking your life and your ship before this day is done.”

“Less talk; more walk, bud.”

Tethys came at me with a powerful downward swing. Expecting the heavy blow, I dodged aside and scored a nick on his sword arm, then back out of range. Last time we’d fought, he’d thrown all his weight into each attack, leaving me unable to go on the offensive. Since he had to weigh close to twice as much as me, there was no way I could match his brute strength. I made him chase me in hopes of slowly wearing him out with his own overzealousness. I backed towards the stern as I deflected and dodged his attacks, squeezing past our crews. He barreled through them like a stampeding bull, swinging wildly at me. Sparks flew every time he hit the railing, and he didn’t even slow down when he scored deep lines in my tarp-covered lifeboats. I barely kept myself out of harm’s way. Tethys could move almost as fast as me and he wasn’t showing signs of tiring anytime soon.

Once we were alone on the stern, I angled him so his back was to the railing. In my peripheral I noticed Jessie marching towards us, uncontested. I called a large band of water to me and pulled it up over the side of the ship as fast as I could, but I couldn’t concentrate long enough to so much as touch him with it. The water spilled back into the ocean without him being any the wiser. He came at me with swing after swing, so I changed tactics and turned him so his back was to Jessie. He deserved a cheap shot from behind.

Once his girth shielded Jessie from view, Tethys suddenly turned and lashed out horizontally with his sword. Jessie went down, clutching her forehead. “I’ll deal with you in a minute, bitch.”

Tethys rounded on me as an anger-fueled band of water that went up to his knees swept his feet out from under him. He hit the deck with a splash and slid several feet as I pulled a semicircle of water around my boots. I walked up to him laying spread eagle and held my blade to his throat. “Never. Hurt. A woman.
Especially
in my presence.” Jessie had a curtain of blood dribbling down her face. She sat up and wiped her eyes, then just sat there, holding her forehead. Hopefully she wasn’t going into shock.

Tethys lay unarmed with hands held by his head. I stepped on one of his hands. He cried out in pain and reached for my foot, but I sliced his forearm and pushed his hand back down with the tip of my sword, holding it over his wrist. He held still, his face red. “After all these years, why get this hostile?”

“You acquired something of mine and didn’t try to give it back.”

“So you hunted me down just for her?” I said in disbelief.

“No. I came straight here. I knew she’d try to get home. I torched it when no one would tell me where she was. She has the power to attract fish to her. I was making so much money until she escaped.”

Jessie wiped more blood from her eyes and unsteadily got to her feet. Hopefully that was a sign that her cut looked worse than it was, but she looked too pissed off to care.

“So you really are that stupid and possessive... I almost pity you.”

Tethys spat on my deck.

I sent some water over and washed it away, then held my sword on his neck again. “Jessie, I believe the opportunity to rip his dick off has arrived. Come get your trophy.” Mido walked up beside Jessie, holding his sword arm’s elbow. He was pretty dinged up, but when he saw the blood on Jessie’s face, his muscles bulged with rage. He glared at Tethys and offered his sword to Jessie. She wordlessly took it. Mido tried to examine her forehead but she gently pushed his hand away and approached Tethys, weapon held low.

Next thing I knew, I was down on one knee and Tethys was reaching in my coat. Then my brain registered the searing pain in my knee. I tried to push myself back to my feet but Tethys grabbed my coat collar. He also took my gun and dug it into the underside of my jaw. I stopped struggling, my gaze locked on Jessie’s. She stopped short. And thank goodness she did. I wouldn’t put it past Tethys to shoot her just so we wouldn’t have her if he couldn’t. “Tethys,” I said in a low, warning voice, “you do know that if you shoot me, you die, right?”

Half a dozen quasi-children manifested in a circle around us, materializing out of the air like a sudden fog. For once their black eyes were fixed on someone else. They were all crouching like they were waiting to pounce. I could suddenly see my breath and everything got dead quiet.

“It’s worth it. You’re going to Hell with me.” He switched off the safety.

I gave him a pitying frown, almost wishing he was right. “No I’m not,” I said plainly.

He fired the gun, my whole body flinched, and explosions of pain filled my jaw, neck, and back of my head. It was too much. I started tipping backwards and blacked out.

*     *     *

Jessie covered her mouth as Dyne toppled onto his back. The quasi-children drifted over to Tethys and placed their hands on him. He gasped and stiffened just like her father had, and then the quasis collected the gun and vanished, just like two years ago. Her heart pounded in her chest. She stood still, rooted in place with fear and bad memories. Her only saving grace was that the death of her father wasn’t nearly as psyche-shaking a memory as all the ravaging to her body. It was such a horrible thing to think but it was true. Her father’s death hadn’t been deliberate. Raping her had, and it had happened to her. Her heart ached for one of her father’s hugs.

Mido rushed to Dyne and examined his bullet wound, which was leaking blood all over his neck, coat, and the deck. Mido pulled the captain upright, slipped a shoulder under his arm, then hoisted him to his feet. Dyne’s head lolled, showing more blood down his backside. Sauna ran over and slipped under Dyne’s other arm. “Sam!” Mido cried as he and Sauna carried Dyne across the stern and to the entrance of the lockdown container. Sam limped after them, keys in hand.

The fighting was over. The last of Tethys’s men rode the zip line back to their ship, but Jacobi and Rammus cut the lines with their swords. Two great white sharks Jessie didn’t remember calling to her aid, but knew she must have, swam up to the splashes and lunged in, jaws wide. She looked away.

Jessie felt like herself again. Right after Mido had called her his sea goddess and kissed her, it’d felt like her consciousness had taken a back seat to someone else using her body. It’d felt like being half awake while her body went through the motions of regular activity. Even though the sensation had been a little scary, it had also been thrilling. She’d felt so powerful and invincible. She’d helped take down one enemy after another, going untouched until Tethys. She still had a hand over her cut. On top of that, she still had a dick to chop off.

Mido’s sword in hand, Jessie straddled Tethys’s legs and took in his pale face frozen in shock. The air was chill but it was warming back up in a hurry. “I wanted you to be alive when I did this.” She cut his belt with a jerk, then slashed a line in his pants from thigh to belly. “At least you’ll never hurt another girl ever again.” She bent over and sliced off a piece of his shirt, then used that to grab his penis and pull tight. She severed the offensive extremity in one swift cut, then rolled it up and hurled it overboard. “Rot in Hell!” She dropped the sword, then began beating on Tethys’s corpse like it was a punching bag, taking her rage out on it. This man had not only scarred her for life, but also torched her home and abused her ability to commune with fish. She pounded gash after gash into the corpse with her studded knuckles. Tears fell but their blurring her vision only made her punch harder.

At some point Mido tried to pull her away. She pushed him away with bloodied hands and resumed pounding the corpse to pulp, until she almost collapsed on top of it.

*     *     *

Everyone but Scully, Cancer, Dyne, and Sam were gathered in the galley. Mido was handing out tin mugs of herbal tea that would help dull pain and fight off infection. All of them battled the bitter taste with sugar, honey, rum, or vodka; just enough to avoid vomiting the concoction up and not too much to negate the tea’s effects.

Tethys’s ship had sank while they’d patched up. They’d been hoping to salvage supplies and check for imprisoned women, but who and whatever had been on there was now resting on the bottom of the Mediterranean. It was bittersweet solace. None of them doubted that any innocent lives had drowned.

Rammus stood before the table, staring into his empty mug, brooding. After dropping anchor and clearing the deck of Tethys and his dead men, the entire crew had spent the next hour suturing and bandaging each other. Right now Cancer was monitoring Scully closely. He’d suffered the worst injury of all of them--not counting Dyne. No one counted him since he’d be fine after lockdown. Memory of watching him get shot made Jessie feel sick to her stomach. She did a full-body shiver, then blocked out the disturbing image. Scully was still unconscious with half his face sewn back on but at least Cancer believed he’d make it. They had a small blood bank to dip into. On top of that, the bolt had missed his jugular.

Rammus, sporting bandaged arms and fresh sutures on the meat of his shoulder, cleared his throat. Everyone looked up from their cups. “We’ll head for Alexandria as planned and let our wounds heal there, until Captain’s next lockdown is over. Since Sam’s got a broken ankle and is now part of Jacobi’s Cripple Crew, this means we all need to chip in with keeping an eye on O’Toole. Got it?” The crew nodded their assent. “Now everyone dig deep and help the techies in the engine room too, along with Cancer keeping an eye on Scully. Jacobi, you’ll split piloting the ship with me. Everyone else work in the engine room in one-hour shifts all the way to port. All of us are pretty darn beat up. Don’t overdo it and rip yourselves back open. We’ll reach port in less than twenty four hours if we keep the engine running hot. We gotta get there as fast as we can for Scully’s sake. We’re just about out of medical supplies.” He clapped his hands together. “Now everyone get some food so we can push off.”

Chapter 23

Inner Strength

“Wakie, wakie, little soul,” a high-pitched, mischievous voice taunted. A collection of voices cackled. Their voices echoed off what sounded like a hollowed-out cavern.

Oh, god. Not this place again.

I kept my eyes closed and just floated on my back in the lukewarm water. I wanted to pretend I wasn’t here, but no amount of pretending would change the situation. The pain from my fatal injury didn’t carry over to whatever dimension this was; just my soul and a physical manifestation of my body and attire. I didn’t come here during every lockdown; only when sustaining a fatal blow. I didn’t know how it all worked, but this was where my soul went, until I clawed my way back to the mortal plane. This was all part of my curse.

The creature snarled, and then I got a nose full of water as a small hand shoved me below the surface.

“Wake up!”

I popped my eyes open and flailed back to the surface. The water swirled around me as several fishy creatures darted away, laughing. I treaded water and took a moment to get my bearings, along with let it sink in that I was back in this horrible place.

I was in a deep cenote. Didn’t matter where in relation to Earth’s geography since I wasn’t anywhere near there. Hell, I wasn’t far either. All I had to do was wake up in the mortal plane and my soul would be reunited with my physical body. The only problem was, in order to do that, I had to exit the cenote via the dark, gaping hole above us. My company didn’t want me to do that. They’d do their best to keep me stuck; however, I’d escaped before, and I’d escape again. It was just a matter of time. Hopefully this escape wouldn’t take a year, like last time. My then crew from over fifty years ago had understandably taken me for dead. I had to start life over with a new boat and new crew. That had taken a lot of strength of will to get back in the saddle.

So yeah, even though I couldn’t die, this hellish place was the reason I didn’t commit suicide between lockdowns. Slogging through an unnaturally long life full of losing people I cared about was better than sending my immortal soul to Amphitrite’s vicious pets.

The cenote’s vaulted rock walls were lit by glowing plants and worms, and crawling with all sorts of mythical water monsters, mostly nereids. None of them were larger than wolves. They looked mostly like frogs with teeth and claws, and they clung to the rock and flora like lizards. They had bulbous eyes, fanged mouths like crocs, and finlike tails that packed a good smack. They were too many for me to contend with as a human, but no match versus my demon form. However, transforming was exactly what they and Amphitrite wanted.

I swam to the edge of the water and pulled myself onto the rocky bank. A dozen nereids backed away and crouched by the wall. I sat on the lip and let my feet stay in the water. Keeping contact with it helped me keep track of where my company was and how many there were. The glow worms and such cast the cenote in a mix of greens and blues, and bioluminescent fish swimming among the monsters kept getting blocked out by dozens of froggy silhouettes. I was surrounded by hundreds of nereids.

“Amphitrite’s little demon pet has come back to play,” the monster nearest me said. “It’s been a long time. He doesn’t visit often enough.” Others cackled. The ones on the bank began to inch closer.

I got to my feet and water dripped onto the rock and back into the pool. My company shied away. Their skittishness was partially an act. If I provoked them, they’d eagerly tear into me. This was just a game to them, to see how long before I cracked. I took in their sheer numbers and let out a resigned sigh. I was already on the verge of cracking. First the water show after lockdown, then the stunts in the train station and La Havre, and then my lash-outs versus Tethys. What was one more? “This visit’s gonna be much shorter. I’ve got things to do back where I belong.”

“What things?” another asked.

“Take care of my crew, make a few deliveries, and try to get rid of my curse.” It didn’t matter whether or not I told them the truth or anything at all. They just liked to bicker with me. I was the sideshow freak in this place, and I felt like it.

“No!” A third said. “Forget about them. Stay with us and play.”

“Stay cursed. It’s more fun that way!” More cackling.

Something cold pawed at my hand. I spun and put up my fists. A naiad crouched before me and didn’t flinch. She was smaller than the nereids, had breasts like a woman, and bigger lips and wider hips than her male counterparts. She looked up at me with her bulbous eyes.

“Why do you hide in your human shell? Your demon form is so much more fun.”

“Human is boring!” another shouted.

“Says you,” I said.

“Says all of us!” another said. More voiced their agreement. The cenote echoed with dozens upon dozens of voices. The nearest creatures began creeping towards me again and their voices unified into a chant.

“Demon, demon, demon!”

I glared at the nearest monsters. “No,” I said firmly. They stopped their advance. The chanting lost its uniformity and the word “no” rippled out among them, some saying it in disbelief and others questioningly, but at least it got them to stop goading me.

The nereid who’d woken me stood on its hind legs and held up its arms. “No!” The rest fell silent, letting the sound of water drizzling into the pool fill the humid air.

At the creature’s full height, it stood no taller than my stomach. It glared at me, undaunted by our size difference. None of them frightened me, not even their sheer numbers. They filled me only with dread and misery.

“Then we will make you!” it said.

Several tackled me into the water and we went under with a big splash. The sound of bubbling and swishing filled my ears, along with their dolphin-like calls. I rolled and flailed, and they let go. No sooner had I figured out which way was up did they tackle me again. I flailed some more, shaking them off, but not before they pulled me a little deeper. I swam for the surface, got a gulp of air, and they pulled me down by my ankles. The struggle began anew.

I fought my way to the surface several times, getting a little closer to shore with each gulp of air. They were toying with me. I knew it. They knew I knew it. I also had to concede it was probably a matter of time before they got what I didn’t want, but I’d exhaust all my other options first.

Right as my face broke the surface for the millionth time, I opened my mouth and gulped down water instead as they prematurely yanked me back under. I coughed it out only to suck in more water. I began to panic as I fought the urge to inhale. My chest tightened. I’d only black out  for a while if I drowned in this place, but who knows how long that’d be on Earth? I couldn’t afford to waste my opportunity with Jessie.

I called water to me and launched myself and several nereids onto the rocky shore. My attackers let go as I landed on my hands and knees and coughed up water. I gagged a couple of times, then gasped for air. A few tried to sneak up from behind but I swept them away with a crescent of water. They began chanting for my demon form again.

Ironically, I wasn’t entirely sure what my demon form looked like. No one had ever held up a mirror to my transformed body. I just knew it was fifty feet tall, had fishy features, a grayish-blue hide, and a few extra abilities my human self lacked.

I looked at the water teeming with monsters, and then at the cenote’s dark opening a hundred feet above me. There were plenty of outcrops and plants to help me climb up, out, and back to consciousness, but they’d never let me climb unmolested. This left me with another idea I doubted would work, but I had to at least try or I’d never know.

I charged the nearest monsters. They parted for me like a school of sardines fleeing from a shark. Once I reached the wall, I turned around and charged through them again. They’d filled the empty space between me and the water. I leapt out over the water and cannonballed in, then let myself sink until my body lost momentum. I called a ton of water to me and rocketed myself up into the air. The opening rapidly drew closer as it felt like I was riding an elevator. The monsters watched my escape attempt, stupefied, but then some of the ones still above me leapt off their perch and latched onto me. They knocked me sideways and off my column of water. I angled it back under me and willed it to keep lifting me, along with my excess baggage. My head ached with the mental strain and my ascent slowed, then several more latched on and I couldn’t maintain concentration anymore. We free-fell and splashed back into the pool.

They dragged me down while I let the pounding in my head subside. I used water to launch myself back onto shore once more, then sat against the wall and caught my breath. The nereids and naiads gathered around and above me, close enough for me to punch them. They snickered and babbled away, trying to goad me into fighting them with little pushes and pawing at me.

“We know who you want,” one creature at my feet said. “No Rhode for you. Demon pet can’t have her, so play with us!”

Another up high said, “Can’t have her!” a second shouted from up high, and then they all started chanting that.

I clenched my jaw, a scream lodged in my throat. Rhode was the woman that had won my heart so long ago. They taunted me with this truth every time, but it never got any less painful or enraging to hear. I wanted to prove them wrong just as badly as I wanted my curse lifted, but I was powerless to change the former. God, how I wished she could save me from this predicament.

Cackling, they latched onto my legs and tried to drag me back in, but I dug my fingers into nooks of a jutting rock and they couldn’t budge me. Dozens more swarmed in and claws pricked at my fingers and wrists. With their sheer numbers, they took away my advantage, prying my hands loose. They began dragging me back to the water. I clawed for purchase but their slimy hands held my limbs hostage. My boots touched the water. I had absolutely no advantage in this place, unless I sacrificed my humanity and gave them what they all wanted.

“
Stop!
”

They froze, holding me in place with the water soaking my ankles. I resisted the urge to struggle free. I really didn’t want more water in my lungs.

“What do you want?” a nereid in front of me said.

“You win,” I said humbly. “Let me go.”

“Demon?” Others echoed the leader’s question.

I lowered my gaze and nodded. My heart sank.

“No more tricks?”

“No more tricks,” I said. Bile rose in my throat. Throwing around water was one thing. Turning into a monster? Ugh.

They let me go and backed away a little. They were going to have to back up a lot more if they didn’t want to get squashed, but there was no way I’d courtesy them with that warning. Squish as many as the buggers I could.

I removed my trench coat, held it out at arm’s length for all of them to see, and dropped it at my feet, then sat down and took my boots off, one at a time.

One nereid said, “Demon pet said no more tricks.”

I glared in the direction of the voice. “It hurts to outgrow what I’m wearing. Now shut up and wait a minute.” Dozens of them cackled. I set my boots on top of my coat. Socks weren’t a big deal to keep on but I removed them as well since they were sopping wet. I took off my belt and added it to the small pile, then looked up again. They began chanting “demon.”

I wondered if I could tap into demon strength real quick, just long enough to wash away enough monsters to clear a path to the opening. I’d accidentally dipped into demon strength back in Revivre and managed to fight off transforming. Maybe I could do it again...

No tricks? My ass.

I got to my feet, closed my eyes, and concentrated on the water as I held out my hands. They chanted louder and faster. I sucked in a deep breath and bent my knees, then surged upright and flung my hands over my head as I filled the cavern with a huge jet of water. I hosed off the shore and the wall near me. The chanting broke into screams and cries. I scored a line up the wall, sending dozens of monsters splashing into the churning pool. Once I felt my skin start to tingle, I let go of the water and hustled up the wall.

I clawed and scrambled my way up, thankful for the network of handholds. My skin crawled not only with my body trying to undergo transformation, but also with hundreds of eyes watching me climb. When my hands and arms turned a greyish-blue, I paused, closed my eyes, and fought against transforming. I pressed my forehead to the wall and put my handholds in death grips and willed myself to stay human. I was halfway up. I was almost free. I just needed a moment to--

A bunch of claws ripped my hands away and flung me off the wall. I sucked in a deep breath right before I hit water, then gave up my fight against transforming. That trick had been the only thing I hadn’t tried before. More hands clasped my limbs as my clothes started feeling tight against my body. They spun and tugged and pushed and twisted me in every which direction. I continued to grow, and once I ripped through my clothes, the monsters darted away. I silently bid my humanity farewell. Fins and dorsal sail sprouted out of my body. I developed webbed hands and feet, a tail, and a tough hide, and then exploded to full size. My skin stopped tingling and I turned the cenote into one big firehose. I jetted up and out of the pool and through the opening before any of them could react. The last thing I saw was the pitch black opening, and then I was free. I became aware of the lockdown contain under my human back. I smelled metal, rust, saltwater and musty air. And my skin was tingling.