Angelfire (29 page)

I looked over the edge and my eyes went wide when I saw dolphins, at least a half dozen of them, dipping in and out of the water, their shimmering gray backs vanishing and reappearing through the waves. I couldn't help the squeal that escaped me.

“Dolphins!” I cried, pointing at them for Will to see. He peered apathetically over my shoulder and said nothing. “They're following us. It must be good luck or something, right?”

I heard an ugly snort behind me. I turned to see José walking by. “Don't get too excited,” he grumbled, scowling down at the dolphins. “They're hoping we find shrimp for
them to steal. Greedy bastards.
Carroñeros!
” He angrily slapped the side of the boat, and I was glad when the loud resulting thump didn't spook them. When José was out of earshot, Will leaned toward me.

“Don't let him bother you,” he said.

“He's just creepy.” The captain left a bad taste in my mouth. I couldn't wait until we got rid of the Enshi and got the hell back to San Juan. And then
home
.

“You used to think
I
was creepy,” Will said. He grinned.

I held his eyes challengingly. “Used to?”

His grin widened. “You don't mind me so much now.”

I huffed. “Don't get your hopes up.”

Nathaniel appeared around the cabin, glowering. “These men are really awful.”

“Why?” I asked.

He shook his head. “They like to
talk
—and we'll just leave it at that.”

I had an idea of what he meant by that. I suddenly felt cold and damp and wished I'd brought a hoodie to wear on board. Or even a trash bag.

“Shall we go below?” Nathaniel offered, seeing me shiver.

Will and I agreed, and we all went into the kitchen belowdecks. The room was painted a dull white, with only steel appliances, rust, and something black growing on the walls as accents. The room smelled of mold. I wrinkled my nose disapprovingly. Will sat down at the wobbly kitchen table and I joined him. Nathaniel pulled out a grimy pack of
cards from his jeans pocket and laid them on the table as he plopped down on a chair.

“Where'd you get those?” I asked, happy that we had something to do during the trip.

“The first mate gave them to me,” he explained, pulling the yellowing cards out and shuffling them. “What shall we play?”

“Poker,” I answered.

“No chips.”

I raised a finger. “
Imaginary
chips.”

He laughed. “All right, then. You in, Will?”

Will nodded and smiled. “Deal me in.”

We played a few hands, and Nathaniel kept trying to bet with more imaginary money than he had, which got annoying. Will was pretty good and had a disturbingly effective poker face, but I still destroyed them both. I got bored after a few games and left to go above. Will followed me.

On the main deck some of the crew sat at a small table, two of them smoking fat cigars. I smiled pleasantly when I walked by them and made my way to the stern. When I saw the sun dipping below the horizon, I uselessly willed the ship to go faster. A giant wake streamed behind the boat, and swirling strips of white water danced on the dark surface of the sea. The water was no longer the bright sapphire of the Puerto Rican coastline but a murky blue-black with no end I could see. The Caribbean twilight sun cast fiery golden light on the clouds above as it set. I caught myself searching the
horizon for the silhouettes of winged monsters. I had a horrible vision of reapers swooping down us, like the Wicked Witch of the West's army of flying monkeys, tearing us to pieces and taking off with the sarcophagus.

Will stepped up close behind me and laid his hands on the rail on either side of mine, resting his chin on my shoulder. “We'll be fine,” he assured me. “This is the scariest part of the night, but we'll make it through.” His cheek touched mine inadvertently and my gut did a little flip. I stood frozen like a statue, afraid to move. “Relax,” he said, and kissed the back of my neck. His warm touch sent a shiver through my body and I didn't pay much attention to what he said next. “Nothing is going to happen. We're almost there, and we're going to shove that damn box off the ship and it'll be crushed to nothing before it even hits the bottom of the ocean.”

I smiled and let out a breath, trying to loosen up. I turned around to face Will, who kept his arms wrapped around me, but his body stiffened. I leaned back against the railing.

“You always say the right things, don't you?” I grinned playfully up at him.

The wind blew through his hair. “I like happy Ellie more than sad Ellie.”

“It's going to take more than that to make me happy.”

He flashed me a mischievous grin and relaxed. He dipped his head low, but his lips stopped a few inches from mine. “Then what will it take?”

I struggled to breathe and speak at the same time,
staring at his mouth. “You've got a good imagination. I think you could come up with something.”

“May I?” he whispered.

I nodded stupidly, unable to articulate a
yes
. His lips brushed mine, lighting tiny firecrackers on my skin. His hands settled on my waist, and he pulled me a little closer to his body.

I heard a scream and Will spun around, releasing me. A second scream tore through my skull. Will threw an arm out to shield me, and I stepped up close behind him.

A body flew through the air and landed on the deck in front of us. When he slid to a stop, I recognized him as one of the crewmen. He was bleeding horrifically from his chest. He sputtered and reached up for me, his eyes wild and bloodshot. My body froze with fear as I watched the man die. I heard another shriek.

We were under attack.

MY BREATHING WAS SHALLOW AND RAPID. THE screams grew louder and they multiplied, filling my head. I heard laughter, high and lilting, maniacal, like a clown on crack. I was suddenly lightheaded, and nausea overcame me. I pressed against Will's back, feeling faint.

“Ellie,” Will said firmly as he turned to me. “Do you hear me? We need to get our weapons and fight. We aren't at the trench yet.”

I said nothing but stared ahead into the blinding glare cast by the ship's lights, which reflected off the mist that was rising from the seas with nightfall. Beyond was darkness and more screams. I heard the
pop-pop
of gunfire and saw white flashes like firecrackers on the other side of the cabin.

Will jumped in front of me and grabbed both my shoulders, his green eyes brightening fiercely. “Snap out of it,
Ellie! If you stay here, you will die and so will everyone else. You can't let everyone die!”

“I need my swords,” I said weakly.

“There's my girl,” he said, and touched my cheek.

I called my swords. The fading light caught the Enochian etchings running the length of both blades. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I believed in myself. I had faith in my power.

We ducked low and darted in through the cabin door. Will lugged the hard gun case out of the duffel bag and flipped it open. Inside were two pistols and a shotgun, along with a lot of ammunition.

“I've never shot a gun before,” I said shakily.

“Don't worry,” he assured me. “They're not for you.” He loaded up and stuck the pistols in his jeans and held the shotgun in one hand.

“But guns won't kill a reaper,” I said.

“You shoot enough bullets to destroy the head. It will turn into stone once it's dead.”

I gave a slow, understanding nod. “Where's Nathaniel?” I asked, my voice steadying.

Will shook his head and stood up with me. “I have no idea. Probably fighting. He needs these. Are you with me?”

I nodded.

“I need you, Ellie.”

“I'm with you.”

He studied my face for another few excruciating moments,
his expression hard. “Let's go. People are dying.”

I followed him back out of the cabin and up onto the main deck. The cries were chaotic and shrill, flooding my ears. The first thing I saw when I emerged was Nathaniel standing with his back to me, and above him Ivar. Her massive wings spread high and wide, her pale eyes bright like twin full moons embedded deep in her skull. Her power surged around her, whipping her ashen hair wildly about. She backhanded Nathaniel's face, and he crashed to the ground.

“Nathaniel!” Will bellowed and threw the shotgun.

Nathaniel grabbed it, spun around, pumped the shotgun once, and blasted Ivar square in the chest, knocking her back a few steps. She righted herself and stared down at the hole in her rib cage. She looked back up to him and snarled, baring fangs, and the wound closed back up.

“You ruined my dress,” she hissed, and stomped toward him.

He pumped the shotgun again, blowing a hole through her shoulder as she jerked her head out of the slug's path, which thumped her body to the side, but she kept coming.

Something
thunk
ed above me, and my head snapped up to see the madly grinning, shark-toothed face of Geir leaning over the roof of the cabin. His wings spread like a canopy over me, and he leaped off the roof and landed between me and Will.

“Thought you could run, eh, Preliator?” he asked, licking
his lips with a devilish hunger. His mouth grinned wider than biology should have allowed.

A rush of courage went through me, and I ran at him, swinging my swords, but he vanished from my sight for a heartbeat. Something pounded into my back and I hit the floor. I flipped over and saw that Geir's hands had transformed into monster claws again. He reached down for me and grabbed me around the throat. His other hand yanked my swords away, and lightning fast, he wrenched me high over his head and slammed me into the cabin wall. He held me too high for my toes to touch the floor, and his claws tightened around my throat. He pressed me harder into the wall until I could barely breathe.

“Where is the Enshi?” he snarled.

When I didn't answer him, he yanked me forward and then slammed me deeper into the wall, the metal crunching. I cried out as pain shot up and down my body.

“Where is the sarcophagus?”
he screamed into my face, his yellow eyes blazing. He roared and threw me. I hit the floor hard and slid until I struck the gunwhale. Geir's clawed hand snatched my ankle and dragged me back toward him. He flipped me onto my back, held both my wrists over my head with one hand, and crouched over me, digging his talons into my cheek and throat with his other hand.

A crewman swung a steel rod at Geir, but the reaper slashed with his talons and ripped the poor man's chest wide
open. “As I was saying,” the reaper said, flicking the points of his needle teeth with his pale tongue. “Even if we have to tear this tin can apart bolt by bolt, we're still going to kill you all.”

I wrenched an arm free and punched Geir in the face. He released me and doubled over, hissing obscenities at me. I twisted away from him, but a hand grabbed a fistful of my hair and jerked my head back. I stared into the beautiful, ghostly face of Ivar.

“I've had about enough of you,” she growled, her hair flowing around us wildly in the misty ocean wind.

My fear spun into anger and I threw a fist at her, but she grabbed me by the throat, flipped me over her head, and chucked me upside down like a rag doll into the ship's smokestack. The metal clanged and crunched upon impact, and I slid to the deck headfirst, crumpling into a heap. I looked up to see Ivar launching herself toward me, wings spread wide, hands outstretched to grab me, and I saw one of my swords lying between us.

I leaped for it, grabbed the helve with both hands, and swung high. Ivar hissed and dived to the left, but my blade sliced through her wing. She shrieked and lost control, spiraling into the rail. I jumped to my feet as she recovered, and as I raised my sword high and slashed down, her hands caught both my wrists and we were locked in a battle of brute strength.

Ivar snarled like an animal up at me, her corpse blue lips curling back and flashing viper fangs. Her wings spread
wide, and I swore as I watched the damaged wing regenerate to perfection. Her power erupted in my face and sent me flying through the air. I landed on my back hard enough to crack the steel surface of the deck beneath me.

“Ellie!” Will cried when he saw me hit the ground. He was battling against Geir, and I lost track of both of them through the hysteria.

“Where is Nathaniel?” I yelled as I climbed to my feet. My fear for his life made me forget about the pain in my back.

Ivar's too-large pale eyes glowed bright white until her pupils nearly vanished, and a cruel smile spread across her lips. “You don't have to worry about him any longer,” she sneered as she took a step toward us, her wings wide and blocking out the light. The movement of her wings and swirling wind stirred the hem of her dress at her ankles, and I could see that she was barefoot. “You killed Ragnuk, and I thank you for ridding us of that annoyance. However, I must confess I didn't think you had it in you.”

“It's your mistake that you keep underestimating me,” I shot back, my grip on my sword tightening. I searched the deck for the other and spotted it lying against the cabin door.

Ivar scoffed. “Don't presume too much, child. Bastian seems to think very highly of you, though. In fact, he even wants to meet you.”

“Excuse my lack of enthusiasm,” I growled. “The feeling is not mutual.”

Ivar pouted. “He'll be so disappointed.”

“Bite me,” I snapped.

Her lips curved into a sensual, eloquent smile. “I can do that.”

She lunged at me, but I twisted around, bolting for my sword by the cabin door. In two long strides I was there, grabbing the hilt with my free hand and lighting it with angelfire as I turned around. Ivar slammed into me and sent us both crashing through the wooden cabin door, splinters flying everywhere. I smashed into a wooden table and Ivar landed on top of me. I shoved a helve into her throat as she gnashed at my face, snapping and snarling like a wolf. Her fingers grabbed at me, pulling at my shirt and hair, her claws slashing away at my skin. My power slammed into her, launching her into the ceiling and filling the cabin with bright white light. Her body crushed the fiberglass; the glossy surface crumbled into chunks and the flaky insides fell like snow, covering Ivar with powder. She flapped her wings and settled gracefully down to the floor. The room was entirely too small for her wings to be spread as wide as they were.

She grabbed hold of my shoulders, swung me into a strung-up fishing net, and then smashed me into a set of shelves. Clutter rained down on me, and I fought my way to the surface, clawing free of the net. Ivar's fingers curled around my shirt and lifted me until I was eye level with her.

“I'm going to enjoy killing you,” she sneered. “And when you come back, I'll enjoy killing you again. If the Enshi
doesn't eat your soul, I'll gladly eat your heart.”

Instead of replying, I stabbed her in the gut with a Khopesh. Her eyes bulged and she dropped me. I pulled the flaming sword out and slashed, but she caught my wrist before my blade could catch her skin, and she hissed, pulling her lips back viciously.

“Wrong move.” Her flesh healed shut with only an ugly marbled scar left behind. She lashed her black power at me, striking me across the chest like a whip, and I staggered back. I shook off the blow and saw her lunge for me through the smoky remains of her attack. My own power detonated in a deafening explosion of white and collided with her. It blew her through the cabin, and she crashed through the wall and flew back out on the other side of the deck in a storm of fiberglass and steel.

Ivar hit the deck and climbed shakily to her feet as I stepped through the wreckage of the cabin. Instead of coming for me again, she snapped her eyes to the side, and my gaze followed hers. Will stood there with his hands at his sides.

“William!” she sneered, her voice ringing out over the crashing waves. “So good of you to join us!”

Will said nothing and threw his arms up and fired Nathaniel's two pistols into Ivar's body. Bullets ripped through her chest, spraying blood like confetti, forcing her back. She jerked and screeched as he unloaded both clips into her. When the guns clacked empty, Will dropped the
clips, reloaded effortlessly, and began firing again.

A hand fell on my shoulder and I swung a sword. Nathaniel caught my arm. “Hey, it's me.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and hugged him. “I thought you were dead.”

He shook his head when I let him go. “I'm fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I looked beyond him for Will and spotted him fighting Ivar hand to hand now. Her dress was riddled with bloody holes, but she appeared unharmed. “Where's Geir?” I asked Nathaniel frantically, grabbing his shoulder.

“He must be below.”

We rushed past Ivar and Will, and I said a silent prayer for him to be alive the next time I saw him. Nathaniel kicked open the door to the hold. It swung wide and we descended into the dim, greenish-blue light. The dank odor of the room filled my nose, and I heard a faint, raspy whimper from somewhere within the darkness. I strained my eyes and spotted the untouched sarcophagus. But who else was down there?

Nathaniel threw a hand over my chest and I froze. A dark shape rose, and a head swiveled toward us, revealing the shark-mouthed face of Geir, his teeth stained red, his yellow eyes mad like a wild animal's. The light coming in through the door cast a sickly glow across his pale skin and mud-colored wings. Held tightly to the reaper's chest was José, gaping unseeingly at the ceiling, his complexion ashen. A
chunk of his throat had been torn out, but the massive wound wasn't leaking nearly as much blood as it should have been. Geir had drunk it all.

“Your Guardian injured me greatly,” Geir rasped, glistening blood dribbling from his lips and down his chin. “I needed to feed in order to heal and finish you off, Preliator. I'm much stronger now that I've had a snack.”

Overwhelming revulsion made me stagger back on my heels, nearly collapsing to the floor. Geir tossed José's body to the side, but with so much force that the poor man flew twenty feet and crashed into the wall. Geir turned to face us squarely, and I could see that his clothing was shredded and soaked dark with his own blood. The only satisfaction I had was the knowledge that Will had done that to him.

Nathaniel raised the shotgun, but Geir was there in an instant. His monster hands yanked the shotgun away from Nathaniel and chucked it at the wall hard enough to snap the barrel off the stock. He grabbed Nathaniel by the throat and hurled him at the same wall. Faster than my eyes could see, Geir was on top of Nathaniel, throwing punch after punch. Nathaniel ducked, and then Geir's fist plunged through the steel wall of the hull. He pulled it back in and water burst through. The metal had flayed Geir's hands to ribbons, and his blood cascaded into the salt water pouring inside, but the reaper's skin healed quickly. Water rushed into the hold with a thundering noise. The ship was going to sink.

A wave of fury washed over me, crashing heavily. I was
tired of it all. The monster in front of me had slaughtered innocent people only because he could. He'd hurt me, terrified me, hurt Will, who had tried to defend me, killed humans who had tried to defend me when they couldn't even defend themselves. All of this would be over. I'd end it tonight.

“Ellie!”

Will's voice came from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, not ready for him to interfere. He could sense what raged through me, but I wouldn't let him stop me this time. I could control my power. I could control myself. There was no madness coursing through me this time but only fury in its purest, darkest form. My power spiraled around me, pushing the water at my feet away.