Rolling in the Deep: Hawaiian Heroes, Book 2 (30 page)

Young fool would need every bit of youthful strength to get through the next few moments. Zane would be a full ho’omalu in his own right one day, but he’d only begun to come into his powers. He needed time…and Daniel must give it to him.

Claire looked around, her movements jerky. “H-how do you know? Wh-who was it?”

“Shh-shh,” Zane said. “Just wait. It’s Daniel.”

“Daniel?” she whispered like a prayer. Ah, his wahine—he was gonna spank her ass ’til she couldn’t sit, if—no,
when
he got her out of here. How had two of the people he cared most about in the world blundered into this?

Realization socked him like a mighty fist in his gut.
This was his fault
. He hadn’t told Zane about his mission today. He’d kept the boy on the periphery where he was safe, letting him spy on Helman’s yacht. If he’d told Zane he was coming here today, Zane would have insisted on accompanying him. So instead, Daniel had let his cousin and his tita blunder straight into the middle.

Daniel swallowed the guilt that rose sickly in his gorge. Time to castigate himself later. If he could get Zane’s attention, he could distract the divers with spearguns trained on them, long enough for the two to get away. He motioned to one of the nai’a to swim down to Zane and Claire. The female slipped down through the spires of lava on the cave roof, ready for his call.

But then Helman took the choice from him.

“What you want us to do with these two?” Yellow Stripes asked, waving his speargun at the two.

“Get rid of them,” Helman ordered. “You can leave the bodies in the sub. No one will find them for years.”

Rage burning so hot in his veins he was surprised the water didn’t boil around him, Daniel surged up over the rim of lava at the cave mouth and rested his feet on the lip of the cave, looking down at Helman and his men. He sent his thoughts into their minds.
“They’re not the ones you need to worry about, po’ino.”

As one, the divers jerked around to look at him. Daniel smiled, showing his teeth, and poised himself to dive. The third nai’a, an older female, hovered at his side, while the other swam out of the cave behind Zane. Zane motioned the dolphin forward, in front of Claire. She jerked as the dolphin brushed past her, but then her gaze, wide and frightened behind her mask, fastened on Daniel once again.

“What the hell…?” Helman’s eyes bugged behind his mask. “A skin diver, down here? With a fucking dolphin?”

“It’s the guy from the pier in Kailua,” one of his men said.

“Yes, it is,” Helman murmured, his gaze narrowing on Daniel. “The question is, what the fuck is he doing here, and how is he speaking to us? I don’t see any kind of communication device.”

“Ukanipo,” muttered Red Stripes. “Hawaiians say he can take human form and that he can call the dolphins—and sharks.”

“Not Ukanipo,”
Daniel replied.
“Worse. I am ho’omalu.”

“What the fuck is a ho’omalu?” Helman sneered.

Daniel smiled again
. “Your worst nightmare, Helman. Guardian of these seas and of this island.”

“Oh, really?” Helman’s stance tightened, his lean body rigid. “You—you were involved in my brother’s death, weren’t you?”

Daniel shook his head. “
Not me.
I’m here to destroy your drugs and send you to prison, or to hell.”

“I don’t think so, fool. Get him,” Helman ordered, his own speargun already coming up.

“No!” Claire screamed, kicking forward. The nai’a blocked her, holding her back.

“Claire, no! Stay back,” Zane yelped, kicking toward her.

“Zane—take her! Get going,”
Daniel commanded, as he dove off the cave. He hit Helman with a thump and sent him reeling backward through the water. But something hit him in the chest with a solid thud that seared into ice. He looked down at himself and saw a spear imbedded in his right pectoral. Helman’s spear had hit him, inches from his heart.

The nai’a whistled, a shrill sound that echoed in Daniel’s ears.
“Yes, little sister—should’ve let you distract him,”
he managed as his system registered the pain. He wanted to fold over himself, curl up in agony.
“Better me than—these two.”

Helman’s eyes widened in triumph, and he kicked backward, away from Daniel. “Got you, you bastard. Kill the other two, and let’s get the stuff.”

But Zane, Claire and her guardian nai’a all moved at the same time, Zane straight for the two divers guarding them, Claire and the nai’a headed for Daniel.

Zane hit Yellow Stripes, knocking his speargun up. Then he was thrown sideways, letting out a muffled cry of pain as Red Stripes shot him, a spear slicing through his shoulder and protruding from his back.

He fell back in the water, kicking as he grabbed at the spear, struggling to pull it out. Daniel could hear his gasping breaths as clearly as his own heart beating. But he couldn’t save his cousin yet.

“Tita—get behind me,”
Daniel ordered Claire, reaching into her mind. He grabbed her arm, hauling her behind him, ignoring the pain that seared through him as the spear moved. The nai’a hovered before him, shielding him with her body from the armed divers.

“You’re hit,” Claire cried, grasping at his sides. “Let me help you—take you up. Daniel, you’ll drown!”

“No.”
He held her behind him
. “I am ho’omalu. Tita, trust me.”

Helman reloaded his speargun as the other divers swam to assist him. The nai’a female surged forward, this time knocking Helman’s gun from his hands and flipping around to grasp it in her sharp teeth. The spear fell from the barrel. She carried the gun toward Daniel.

“Get him,” Helman screamed. “And get that damned dolphin.”

The nai’a female nudged the speargun toward Daniel. It dropped slowly to the sandy bottom, sending up a plume of sand.

Gritting his teeth, Daniel grasped the spear in his shoulder and pulled. He grunted in pain as it jerked suddenly from his flesh, then let it go, reeling back. Blood spurted, a murky plume in the water.

Ignoring the icy agony spreading in his chest, Daniel turned on the diver barreling toward him. The nai’a darted forward, and Red Stripes cried out, unable to contain his forward momentum. The nai’a hit him, jolting him back. She rolled, sending him tumbling over her back toward Daniel.

“I am harder to kill than you think.”
Daniel grabbed the disoriented diver by the throat and squeezed. Tissue and cartilage gave beneath his powerful grip, and the other man’s eyes bulged as he scrabbled desperately to break Daniel’s grasp, jaunty red stripes flashing as he kicked. His motion slowed, and he went limp. Daniel cast him away, straight into the path of the second diver, and turned on Helman, who regarded him with fascinated horror.

“You should be drowning—dying.” Helman gasped, his body rigid as he kicked backward. “Why aren’t you drowning?
What are you
?”

“Daniel!” Claire cried again. She hit him from behind, reaching past him with her slender arm as Yellow Stripes aimed his reloaded speargun at him. The man pulled the trigger, and Daniel felt his wahine jerk against him as the spear hit home.

He surged around in the water, expecting the worst. But though her eyes were wide with shock, no spear protruded from her wet suit. Only a thin ribbon of blood spiraled from a tear in the shoulder of her wet suit. He grabbed her and pulled her other hand up over the wound.
“Stay here.”

“Daniel,” she mumbled, her mouth trembling around her air hose.

He touched her cheek under the edge of her mask.
“I won’t let you die, tita.”

Daniel, this new, frightening Daniel, who must be a figment of her crazed imagination, or another one of her vivid dreams, turned away. The two dolphins swam back to join him. One of them moved slowly, one flipper at an awkward angle.

Claire ignored the pain in her shoulder. Daniel was out of his head—irrational. Otherwise, how could he possibly ignore the blood spiraling around him in the water? He had to be in agony.

“No, it’s you who are hurt the worst,” she choked out. “Daniel, you’ll drown soon. Here, you need air. Take mine—we’ll head up to the surface—I’ll help you. We’ll take turns breathing. You’ll be okay. We’ve just got to get out of here. And Zane—we have to get Zane.”

Daniel ignored her.

“E ho’i mai, kaikaina man
ō
,”
he called, his voice vibrating through her mind. “Helman, say good-bye to your kula—your drugs.”

And behind them, a muffled boom rumbled through the very foundation of the island, vibrating through the water around them. Rock rattled and grated, a low vibration that continued on and on.

Daniel gestured at the cave behind them. “Pele comes. She will burn your kula in her flames.”

Claire sobbed with frustration, trying to tug him upward, away. He was over the edge, beyond reason.

The man who seemed to be the boss of the drug runners, Helman, pointed at Daniel, screaming something at his remaining diver. She couldn’t hear him as Daniel seemed to be able to, but she could clearly see he was ordering the man to do something. Red Stripes had slumped to the sea floor, unconscious. Claire hoped he was dead.

Then Yellow Stripes aimed his speargun again—at Daniel. No, he couldn’t possibly survive a second shot. She looked around for something to hold up before them and saw the discarded speargun at her feet, the spear lying half out of the barrel.

Letting go of Daniel, she reached for it. She’d never shot or even held a speargun, but she’d do it, if those damn dolphins would just get out of the way. They swam back and forth before Daniel, their urgent clicking and whistling echoing through the water.

She soon realized the reason for the dolphins’ pushy behavior. They were not only trying to protect her and Daniel, they were trying to herd them. The water was growing uncomfortably hot. Claire winced as a burst of heat seared her lower leg. She let the dolphins nudge her farther away from the cave, urging Daniel along with her.

They moved a few feet, and she turned to see where the heat had come from. What she saw made her gasp with renewed fear.

Fire flickered within the inky recesses of the big cave. As she watched, more hot water billowed forth in a bubbling stream.

“Daniel,” she cried. “Come on, we have to move. The volcano is erupting. Lava!” She turned to lift him in her arms and pull him away.

But a rough hand shoved her aside, jolting her against Daniel. As she landed awkwardly against him, her air tank struck his back, and she felt rather than heard his grunt of pain.

She looked up to find another diver holding the speargun on her and Daniel. A wild-eyed Hawaiian, his dive suit battered and torn, his mask hanging askew on his face.

The man mumbled something and lifted the speargun, aiming it at Daniel at point-blank range. Behind him, the fire grew brighter, the back of the cave seething in a glowing mass.

“No,” Claire cried, holding out her hands, moving to shield Daniel with her own body. “No!”

Then she cried out in wordless horror as the man fired. The weapon bucked in his hands, the spear flashing forth. She turned, expecting to see another spear protruding from Daniel’s body.

Daniel, his face contorted, had already yanked the spear loose, but a second plume of blood joined the first, this one from his ridged abdomen.

“Daniel,” she moaned. Would this nightmare never end?

Daniel spoke again, his deep voice rumbling under the dolphins’ cries, over the hissing of hot water.

“Too late,” he warned the Hawaiian. “See…who comes…for you.”

The man looked past Claire, and his eyes widened in horror. Claire turned, holding on to Daniel. Oh God, what could possibly be worse? She wanted to wake up now.

Out of the blue depths of the sea, a shape had coalesced, growing larger as it swam lazily toward the humans gathered on the sea floor.

A shark. A huge shark, undulating through the water with lazy swirls of its long, torpedo-shaped body.

Yellow Stripes, the farthest out, backed away from it, kicking toward his boss, and grabbed his arm as if urging him to flee. He pointed the speargun at the shark. The leader shook his head and pointed at Daniel.

Claire shook with a sudden chill as she realized what he was saying—the shark would first attack Daniel or her or Zane, who was crabbing slowly toward her and Daniel, hunched over with pain. The three of them were wounded and bleeding. Especially Daniel. Blood poured from his wounds.

A fin struck her leg. The Hawaiian kicked sharply, fighting his way up from her and Daniel, his eyes wide, shaking his head as if in denial. The speargun drifted down through the water toward her. Reflexively, she caught it. The man turned and swam away, toward the shoreline, his motions frantic.

Claire didn’t know why he had panicked badly enough to drop the speargun, and she didn’t care. She grasped Daniel as firmly as she could around his middle and kicked with all her might, towing him away from the cave, now billowing an ever-intensifying stream of hot water. She raised the gun and pointed it at the shark, over Daniel’s shoulder, the barrel wobbling with every kick. “Keep away,” she muttered. “You’re not getting him.”

“Tita, no.”
Daniel shocked her by lifting his hand, albeit with difficulty, and pushing the speargun aside, causing the blood spiraling from him to thicken, the coils rising like sooty smoke.
“Ukanipo is not coming…for me.”

The drug boss shook his head as if in disgust. Claire blinked. Was he actually laughing behind his mask?

Then Daniel spoke again.
“Look again, Helman.”

Claire gasped, this time in sheer terror. The giant shark was not alone. A phalanx of other sharks materialized from the blue. They swam toward the divers, their flat eyes fastened on their prey, mouths open slightly to reveal razor-sharp teeth. The dolphins were nowhere to be seen.

“Zane,” she called. “Get over here—get behind me. We have to stay together.”

“I’m coming. Listen to Daniel.” Zane’s voice was weak, but he swam awkwardly on toward them, his breaths ragged through the walkie-talkie. He arrived just as the sharks did.