Kissed by Ice (7 page)

I decided to allow him the subject change. At least for the moment. "I think I've finally figured out the pattern."

Eddie sighed, but Kabita raised a brow. "And that is?"

"I think someone is trying to frame Eddie for murder."

Eddie all but rolled his eyes. "That is ridiculous."

"Is it?" I asked. "Think about it. If you were investigating a series of murders in which all four deaths happened in close proximity to one man, wouldn't you be suspicious of that man? Consider him a viable suspect?"

Kabita snorted. "You'd better believe it."

"But it is clear the killer is a vampire," Eddie said. "Haakon…"

"What if the head of security wasn't a Sunwalker?" I asked. "What then? I believe it was only sheer bad luck for whoever planned this that the person investigating these crimes would be the one person who would know exactly what the perpetrator was."

Eddie sighed. "It does make a strange sort of sense, but the question is why? Why would someone care to frame me for murder?"

"Do you have any enemies?" Kabita asked. "Ones that wouldn't mind seeing you locked up?"

"None that I can think of," Eddie said. "At least none with access to the kind of technology that creates these soul-imbued vampires."

Well, that was an interesting turn of phrase. So, Eddie, the sweet, loveable guy
did
have enemies. It was hard to believe, but I'd come across stranger things.

"Maybe someone just wanted to get you out of the way for a while," I suggested.

Eddie shrugged. "I can't imagine why."

Neither could I, but I had a feeling it was important I figure it out. "In any case, we still need to find the vamp. Our best bet is to start searching where I found the other one," I said. "They must have been working together. Anything else is one coincidence too many."

"Agreed," Kabita said. "But I also think there's got to be more to it than that. There must be someone aboard controlling these guys."

"Not necessarily," I said. "Remember, soul vamps don't need to be in proximity to their creator to be controlled. Not like regular vamps. Whoever it is could be sitting on an island somewhere sipping a piña colada and getting a tan."

"We must be prepared for both possibilities," Eddie said. He leaned over, palms flat on the table, as if he was suddenly finding it hard to breathe.

"Eddie, are you okay?" I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Fine, my dear," he said, patting my hand, but his skin looked a little gray. I hadn't noticed it before, so I wasn't sure if I was imagining it or if the room just had bad lighting. "This sort of unnecessary death simply turns my stomach." He offered me a small smile. "Serving justice on this poor woman's behalf is all I need."

"Well, then that is what we will do."

# # #

While Magnussen dealt with the body and the local authorities, the rest of us headed into the belly of the ship to find the vamp. I took them straight to the spot where I'd killed the first one. It was the nature of vamps to nest together. Safety in numbers maybe. Who knew? But chances were, we'd find the second one close to where I'd dispatched the first.

We searched every inch of that damn ship from the cargo holds to the ventilation shafts. Nothing.

"He can't have just disappeared," Kabita said. "We're surrounded by water. Miles from shore."

She was right.

No wait. She was wrong.

"Shit."

Eddie and Kabita both stared at me.

"Vamps don't need to breathe," I explained as I headed upstairs to the command room.

They both stared at me as if I'd grown a second head, but followed slowly.

I sighed as I let myself into the room. "If you don't need to breathe, you don't need to worry about drowning." I let them in, then shut the door carefully. "And it takes a long time for vampires to get tired. Much longer than it would a human. He could have gone overboard. Swum as far as he could until he was either exhausted or the sun came out. Then he could have sunk to the bottom and walked to shore."

"Oh, my," said Eddie, polishing his glasses. He was looking decidedly green. I handed him a bottle of water, which he took with a grateful smile.

"You're an evil genius," Kabita said, clapping me on the back. "Though wouldn't the pressure be a problem?"

"He's dead, remember," I reminded her. "Or undead, anyway. He doesn't have to worry about getting the bends or damaging his organs or whatever."

"So, how do we find him?"

"That might be a little more complicated." I unrolled a map across the table. "The nearest island is here." I stabbed at it with my finger. "But as far as I can tell, it's really small and completely uninhabited."

"Perfect place to hide," Eddie speculated, sinking into a chair at the head of the table. He was looking better, but he was still a little off-color.

"Except he's a vampire. Where would he hide from the sun? There are no buildings and trees won't cut it."

"Wade back out to sea?" Eddie suggested.

"Possible, but a pain in the ass. My guess is he's headed toward his maker or whoever has control over him. Whoever the creator is, I doubt he — or she — is going to hang out on a tiny empty island. If I were a true evil genius, I'd be hanging out on the beach sucking down frosty beverages." I stabbed at another island. "Here maybe. It's big enough to have a comfortable resort and all the creature comforts. Or here." I tapped my finger on another one. "A little small and rustic, but possible."

"I can call back the helicopter," Kabita suggested. "Easy enough to check out those islands."

"I doubt the captain is going to let you land a helicopter on deck again," Eddie pointed out. "Not without some explanation, which we can't give him. If he gets involved in this investigation, he's going to want to hold you as material witnesses. Possibly turn you over to the authorities."

"We can't afford that kind of delay," I said. "We need to get off this boat and to those islands as quickly as possible."

"Maybe we can take one of the lifeboats," Kabita suggested. "Or the wave runners. They've got some down below."

Eddie shook his head. "They will catch you quite easily, I'm afraid. They tend to keep an eye on such equipment, and there is no way you can launch without the bridge being notified and assuming, quite correctly, that the vehicles are being stolen."

I gave a frustrated sigh. "How then? Every minute we're on this ship is another minute wasted. We can't lose this vamp. He's our only lead to whoever is controlling him."

"I might, ah, be able to help you with that," Eddie said.

Kabita and I glanced at each other. "We're listening."

"It's a bit unconventional, and you'll both get quite wet, but I think I know someone who can help."

Chapter Eight

Eddie insisted we wait for full dark to carry out "the plan," but he refused to tell us what he had up his sleeve or who he'd found to help. Instead he handed us the key to his stateroom and shooed us off with the order to rest before disappearing toward the elevators.

"I don't know about you," Kabita said as she paced the narrow strip of floor next to the table, "but I am way too keyed up to sleep. Want to hit the casino?"

I shook my head. "I feel like I haven't slept in days. I'm going to do what Eddie suggested and take a nap."

Kabita nodded. "Meet you in a couple hours," she said before striding down the hall after Eddie.

I locked up behind me and headed in the opposite direction. Once in Eddie's room, I pulled the heavy drapes over the window, kicked off my boots, and threw myself on the bed. The bed was large and plush, and smelled of salt and sea. I was out within seconds.

# # #

Lush green grass as tall as my waist brushed me as I passed, tickling where it touched bare skin. The snug leather leggings I wore felt strange and a little too warm for the fine weather of this land, but they were practical. The short matching leather bodice bound my breasts tightly in place while allowing freedom of movement. I had been wearing a woolen tunic over the top, but it was far too hot, so I'd stuffed it in my pack and went about with stomach and arms bared. No one minded. In fact, most of the other women were dressed the same.

I started. Other women?

A quick glance around the wide grassy plain revealed a dozen other women in clothing much like mine, hair either shaved close to the skull or bound in braids. There were no men. Instead, the women were clearly warriors. Weapons bristled from their belts and packs: swords, daggers, bows. It was as though they expected to be attacked at any moment. We moved at a fast pace, wading through the endless sea of grass, headed toward… what? I had no idea.

We crested a rise, and the woman who was clearly our leader raised her hand. The entire company came to a halt. Below us spread a vast water. It had waves, like an ocean, but the air lacked the briny tang of salt. A lake then, and freshwater, too. Large enough I couldn't see the end of it. One could easily lose a ship out there.

The leader turned to face me, her dark eyes circled with fatigue. "Princess," she said, "we are here."

But where was "here?"

# # #

I woke to Kabita pounding on my door. I stumbled out of bed and staggered across the floor to let her in. I nearly broke my ankle tripping on my boots.

"Come on. Time to go."

"Give me a sec," I said, limping to the bathroom to use the facilities. As I splashed my face with cold water, the dream played over in my mind. This wasn't the first time I'd dreamed of being the Princess. The first time, she'd been a small child escaping from the dying city of Atlantis. The second time, she'd been a teenager running from the Temple of the Moon and invaders who were slaughtering the priestesses. She had been with the High Priestess called Amaza, and they'd been running for a distant colony. In this dream the Princess had been older. Closer to twenty, maybe. But where was she? And why was the dream so damned important?

# # #

"You have got to be kidding me." Kabita hung half over the railing, a large flashlight trained below as she stared at the water with a frown. I wasn't sure if she was talking about the long drop to the ocean's dark surface or what was waiting for us below. Either way, I couldn't blame her. Now that it was full dark, we could finally put our plan into action. Unfortunately the plan didn't help ease my mind one bit.

"No kidding. Eddie," I said, turning around to face him. "You don't think we're going to jump, do you?"

"Of course, my dear." Eddie beamed. "How else do you expect to get down there? It is the most expeditious way I could think of."

I glanced over the rail again and shuddered. It wasn't that I had a heights problem. It was that I had a jumping-off-a-perfectly-good-deck problem. Especially when the seething cauldron I was supposed to land in was a good twenty or so feet below. "And the, ah, creature waiting for us?"

Eddie joined us at the railing and peered over. The wind whipped his halo of gray hair into a froth of wild curls. "Perfectly harmless, I assure you. And an excellent swimmer. If he can pull Poseidon's damned chariot around, he can certainly carry the two of you to shore."

"Make that three," said a deep voice behind us.

All three of us whirled around to find Haakon Magnussen looming over us like an avenging Viking angel. Good gods, he was tall. Taller even than Jack, and Jack wasn't exactly a shrimp. In the darkness his hair practically glowed, but his eyes were dark unreadable slits. Still, I didn't need to read his eyes to feel the anger and determination rolling off him.

"Oh, no, my dear boy," Eddie said, thrusting his hands into his pockets and drawing himself up to his full height. All of about five feet. "You couldn't possibly ride along with the girls. They have a job to do, as do you. And yours is here on the ship." He gave Magnussen a stern, almost fatherly glare. Magnussen ignored him.

"You know very well why I must go with them," Magnussen said. His English had a slightly stilted quality to it. Almost overly proper like many non-native speakers. Except he spoke it with an almost perfect West Coast American accent. Interesting.

Eddie sighed. "Fine. The Hippocampus can take you too. If you insist."

"I do."

"Hippocampus," I muttered to Kabita. "Isn't that part of the brain?"

She rolled her eyes. "Didn't you study Greek mythology in school?"

I shrugged. "Sure, but I've been kinda busy since then. Creatures from Greek mythology haven't been exactly high on the priority list."

"Well, that down there is a Hippocampus," she said, pointing over the railing, "and according to mythology, two of them pull Poseidon's chariot around his underwater kingdom."

"So Poseidon is real, I guess." He wouldn't be the first god I'd discovered was more than an ancient myth. It still never ceased to amaze me.

"Yep."

"Huh." I stared down at the creature waiting for us. The front half was a horse. A very large, very powerful horse. Clydesdale maybe, or something bigger. The back half was something else entirely. It was fish-like in that it had scales and fins, but it was long and sinuous like I'd always imagined a sea serpent would be. It was too dark to make out any color, but its scales shimmered slightly in the lights from the ship. "And we're supposed to ride that thing?"

"More like let it pull us through the ocean. Like riding a dolphin."

"I did not sign up for this shit."

"Ladies," Eddie interrupted. "You really must get going. The Hippocampus needs to take you to shore and return to Poseidon's palace before dawn." He gave a shooing motion as if to hurry us along. How in Hades had I managed to get myself into this?

Oh, yeah. It was my job.

"Here," I said, unclasping the Atlantean amulet that always hung around my neck and handing it to Eddie. "Hang on to this for me. Don't want it ending up at the bottom of the ocean."

"Hmm. Yes. Can you imagine if Poseidon got his hands on it? He's already insufferable enough. Don't worry. I'll take good care of it."

I clambered up and over the railing until my feet were braced on the deck on the ocean side while my hands gripped the railing behind me. We were on the lowest exposed deck, but it was still way too high if you asked me.