Tsunami Blue (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-eight

I yelled into the horn as loudly as possible. The entire stadium of people stopped whatever they were doing, saying whatever they were saying, and stared at the cage.

Trace had reached me. He grabbed the bullhorn out of my grip and threw it aside. But this time I was ready for him. I flattened myself on the floor just as the swing came. He swung so hard that it threw him off balance and he staggered to keep his footing.

It was then that I kicked him in the crotch.

And when I say
kicked
, let’s just say it was a perfectly placed, powerful strike. I had lived with Runners most of my life. Learning to kick a two-hundred-plus-pound man in the balls and keep him down? Slam dunk.

He went down screaming, calling me names even I hadn’t heard before. Who knew Trace, a cannibal and a collector of ears, had such a flair for words?

Trace stayed down long enough for Indigo’s men to swarm the cage.

The men surrounded Trace, who lay moaning in a heap, holding his crotch. My brand-new employer was rolling on the floor and still swearing and—wait; tell me he was
not
crying. Because if he were, these Indigo guys would put it in the wind and he’d never, ever live it down. So not good for the New World king, or whatever he said he was going to be.

Next they swarmed me. Surrounded by Runners with blades drawn, I had no choice but to wait. I didn’t have to wait long. Within minutes, the music stopped, the crowd hushed, and a large man with a bone necklace made of fingers announced, “Indigo on board.” 

I was so glad he didn’t say, “Indigo in the house.” That was so twenty years ago.

The necklace, I gotta say, disappointed me. This was Indigo’s guy, and I had hoped the whole body-part thing might be left behind with Trace. I mean, come on. We live on islands. How about puka shells?

“Pay attention, Blue.”

Gabriel had come up silently behind me; blind or not, he still had his stealth thing going. The Runners who had their blades trained on me had parted and led him to me. I reached out and took his hand, relieved to see him, because Indigo’s men had swarmed him too and I hadn’t been able to get near him.

I noticed lotion around his eyes and iodine on his wounds. His beautiful golden skin had been painted orange with the stuff. Still, I took it as a good sign that Indigo’s men were looking after him. It must mean they weren’t going to kill him. And if they cared enough to tend his eyes, they wouldn’t let Trace and his men kill him either. So. We had a case of Runner versus Runner. Trace the Cannibal against the Blue Crew. May the best men win. Unfortunately for me, in this case there were no best men. Only homicidal, maniacal, power-hungry killers.

And the worst part of all? Gabriel was one of them. A Runner who had been sent as a delivery boy to hunt and deliver a small but lethal package. Me.

 As Indigo drew nearer, some kind of horn sounded, and a flurry of banners unfurled bearing the trademark 666 with daggers. Six men walked ahead of Indigo, all Runners, and started pounding handheld drums made of human skin. I knew the drum covering was human skin because Seamus had tried to give me one for my eleventh birthday. Plus, they just sounded different.

I pressed into Gabriel and he sensed my fear. He pulled me closer.

“What do you see?” he whispered.

“Drums. Please tell me you don’t own one.”

 “I don’t.”

Thank you, God
.

“What else?”

“Wolves. Five in all.” On leashes hooked to harnesses, the animals looked lean, too lean. With hollowed haunches and sunken eyes, the wolves looked ready to make anyone their meal. Runners kept their animals on the edge by keeping them hungry. It made them meaner, deadlier. They were also beaten on a regular basis. It made them killers.

“Stay far away from them, Blue.”

I couldn’t help thinking of Max. How could he have survived these animals? Then again, in the end, he probably hadn’t.

The crowd was on its feet, cheering and throwing bottles and debris.

The chanting began. “Kill, kill, kill, kill…”

At last Indigo stepped into the cage.

And, yup, the man was blue.

I must have gasped, because Gabriel leaned in and asked, “Is he here?”

“Yeah. You couldn’t have at least warned me about the whole blue thing?”

“Don’t let it throw you off. He’s dangerous.”

“Like Trace isn’t?”

“Worse,” said Gabriel. “Much worse.”

Well, that gave me pause. What could possibly be worse than collecting ears and eating human flesh? “Damn it, Gabriel, you really, really need to find new friends.”

“I agree.”

“So this is the famed, the elusive, the amazing, the fantastical Tsunami Blue.”

Indigo stood right in front of Gabriel, who had taken a protective step in front of me as the feared Runner leader approached. Wow, what a buildup. It might be hard to live up to that kind of reputation.

“Gabriel, let’s have a look at our little weather vane, shall we?”

 Weather vane? What a letdown. I’d really liked the fantastical part. I guess once a Runner asshole, always a Runner asshole. It didn’t matter how good your vocabulary was.

Gabriel gently brought me out from behind him. He did everything by touch, caressing my skin with long fingers. He maneuvered me in front of him but kept an arm around my midriff.

Up close and personal, Indigo was an intimidating man. Long shanks of light blue hair hung to his waist, spilling out from under a crushed-velvet top hat that looked borderline ridiculous. Who wore velvet in the Pacific Northwest? His parachute pants and tie-dyed tee did little to camouflage a powerful and fit body. He looked…well, he looked silly. But I knew only too well to never underestimate a Runner. He might have looked like a Blue Meanie crossed with MC Hammer, but I could plainly see the promise of death in his eyes.

A glass vial filled with blood hung around his neck, capped by duct tape. I thought of rumors of Runners who drank blood, and suppressed a shudder.

He reached out and pulled me away from Gabriel, and let me tell you, Gabriel didn’t let go easily. It took a smack to his wrist with a bone club.

Trace, who was being detained by a bevy of blades, shouted, “She’s mine, Indigo, you blue fucking bastard!” That hushed the crowd.

“Finders keepers,” Indigo said in a voice that whispered of death. He crossed his arms and began to walk around me. Stopping, he pulled a wicked machete from one of his men and pointed it under my chin. I refused to blink.

“You have a brave one here, Gabriel,” he said. He spun, swinging the machete so fast the blade blurred. He stopped just short of my neck. I still didn’t blink. But I was glad that Gabriel couldn’t see it. He would have overreacted. And it may have cost him his life.

Indigo motioned to one of his men to bring the bucket of water over. Within seconds the cold water was poured over my head. The mud ran from my body. My fully exposed tattoo shimmered. Indigo kicked the bucket over and jerked me up on it. I now stood precariously on the metal bucket in full view of the crowd. I shivered from the wet and cold, and my nipples hardened as I stood freezing. The surrounding men looked at me with lust and rape and death in their eyes.

Still, I knew that the time for my death, even in this wicked and unholy place, was not now. Not tonight. I had value to these men. And for once in my wet, miserable life, I believed in the value myself. And I was going to somehow, some way, parlay that into freedom.

Indigo stood in front of me and faced the crowd, spreading his arms wide. “I present to you the one, the only, the unholy Tsunami Blue.” He bowed deeply, letting the crowd get a look at me.

The audience exploded. The mesh became our shield as everything imaginable was thrown at it. They screamed my name. They called me witch, devil, monster, and worse. So much worse. And when they rushed the ring, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds strong, I lost my balance and tumbled to the floor. I tried desperately to stop trembling. This time it wasn’t from the cold. It was from the fear. I’d never seen so much hate in one place. I had never felt so much evil.

They fear what they don’t understand, Blue.

Gabriel’s words wrapped around me like an embrace, his embrace.

Armed with flamethrowers, Indigo’s men beat the crowd back into submission. The effect was brutal and the air filled with screams and burning flesh. I wiped at the tears stinging my eyes and watched Indigo.

Indigo continued in a circle, dragging the blade along the stainless-steel floor. Scraping metal against metal, he circled and circled, like a great white. I knelt and sized him up too. 

He wore rings made of abalone shells.

I approved. Hey, I’d wear ’em.

The human-tooth necklace, though? No. Not so much.

At least ten different knives hung from a belt similar to Gabriel’s. Only the blades on Indigo’s were longer. Big approval. Unless, of course, he used one on me.

White, even teeth, but not as white or as even as Gabriel’s. Approval. Now I’d met two Runners who owned a toothbrush.

And so the list went. Long nails that curved. A definite no. He continued to circle, moving the blade in ever closer.

I spotted a little crystal lapel pin. Would I want it? Maybe. It would depend on the story behind it.

And then I saw the earring. It was a thick scroll of horn from a water buffalo.

I thrust my booted foot out and stopped him. “Where”—I clipped the words one by one for emphasis—“did you get that?” I pointed at his ear and felt my fear dissolve, replaced by growing rage.

Indigo moved so fast I didn’t see it coming. But Gabriel, with uncanny senses, must have heard him coming at me.

He tried to lunge for me, but he couldn’t see me. One of the men tripped him and he went down. Gabriel got a steel-toed boot to the kidney. As the boot started to come down on Gabriel’s skull, I screamed and scrambled on all fours, trying to shield him.

“Enough.” The order came from Indigo.

The boot stopped in midair.

I collected Gabriel in my arms. “Blue.” He gasped.

“I’m okay,” I whispered. “I’m okay.”

I was yanked up by the hair. Indigo again. Gabriel was right: There was nothing nice about this man. Nothing at all.

I stood before his blueness, glaring. If I had my knife I would stab out his eyes, then take his heart—if he had one—and feed it to the vultures.

That was how much I hated this man. But first I’d disembowel him, slowly, so he lived while I did it. The same way he had done it to my uncle. In all the years I’d known him, Seamus had never taken out that water buffalo–horn earring. It had been given to him by my father, his brother, before a woman came between them and my father had to choose. That woman had been my mother. Seamus had loved her first.

And Seamus had died protecting me. Even under torture, he hadn’t revealed to Indigo where I was hidden. He had died doing something honorable for once in his unhappy, miserable life. He had died saving Lilly’s daughter. 

I hurt all over. Not only physically, but deep within my soul.

“I expected more from you, Tsunami Blue.”

“I expected a better hat from you, Indigo.”

“Your eyes are remarkable, but the rest”—he gave a wave of his hand—“scrawny. And you’re a muddy mess.”

“You look like a Smurf. Only not cute. In fact, you give the color blue a bad name.”

I got a smack for that. He could beat me around all he wanted, but I knew he wouldn’t kill me. He wouldn’t hurt me too badly. He needed me to tell him about the waves. All I had to do was bide my time and stay alive.

But me being me, I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Plus my hatred for Indigo ran so deep I almost didn’t care about the beatings. I would stay alive no matter what. Just to kill him. For me. For Gabriel. For Seamus. I felt the rage surge again.

“Too bad you’re not pink. You could have gotten a job as the tooth fairy instead of an asshole.”

“Chemical poisoning, bitch. You think I want to be blue? And if you don’t watch that mouth, your new color will be red. From all the blood.” He grabbed my forearm and nicked my pale flesh with his blade. A crimson line formed and droplets of blood dripped on the steel.

Gabriel leaned against the mesh and shook his head. I knew he was heartsick. I knew he wanted me to shut my mouth and survive. Try, at the very least. Indigo hit me again, and the crowd roared. But I’d been hit before. Many times. I was tough. Hardened. I had Seamus to thank for that. He had taught me how to survive. I’d heal.

It was Gabriel I was worried about. They had seen his loyalty to me. He complicated things. I knew the feeling. He complicated things for me too.

The sea whispered.
Coming, coming, coming, Blue. Be ready.

“It’s about time,” I said. Indigo looked at me and shrugged.

I looked at my moon watch. The wave should have hit a half hour ago. But really, what did it matter? It was coming. People would die. I only hoped it wasn’t me.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Someone off the streets had come in shouting that water was receding near what used to be Stanley Park. Totem poles, long submerged, poked their heads out of the water for the first time in a decade. Little by little the beautifully carved cedar totem poles bearing the images of a raven and beaver, the orca and eagle, regained their place in the New Vancouver skyline.

But not for long.

The sea was merely taking a deep breath. This temporary reprieve signaled awful devastation to come.

I’m coming,
the water whispered.
Run, Blue, run
.

My mind raced as I thought of all the different scenarios.

Gabriel and I could drown in here.

Right now.

Together.

But no. I refused to let him drown until we had an official date. Or at least a few more practice sessions. Besides, who wanted to die with all these morons who had refused to listen, chanted for me to fall to my death, and watched me get pummeled by a Smurf? Not the kind of crowd I wished to spend my last moments on earth with.

We could run but would most likely get trampled by the panic of the crowd. Some might make it. But with Gabriel’s blindness and my bruised ribs, we’d most likely be the bodies others walked out on.

“Stay put. I’ll be back to make you bleed.” Oh, good, like he hadn’t already. Indigo pointed his machete at me, then turned and walked toward a group of his Runners who were holding Trace. Or trying to. It looked like the balance was shifting. Trace met him halfway.

Oblivious to the rising level of voices, shouts, and noise, Trace and Indigo started to make an uneasy peace between them. It seemed each faction had about the same number of players. And unless they didn’t want both sides butchering one another, they would have to learn to share. Me.
Great.

They argued over who got to use me first, and I don’t mean in a wave-reading capacity.

I didn’t think I was their type. Scrawny and a ballbuster. But that was Runners for ya. Just not too picky.

“The Gastown steam clock is showing. Gastown is coming back,” someone shouted.

“Let’s go. The place is full of antiques and jewelry and gold.”

Oh, my
. The jingle played in my mind:
Antiques and jewelry and gold, oh, my. Antiques and jewelry and gold…

Gold? I didn’t think so. But wasn’t that just like human nature to think there was free treasure when the fires went out and the floodwaters receded? When something was left unguarded, abandoned, stranded?

There was no gold in Gastown unless you counted a ruined pocket watch or ring. The gold was a myth, an urban legend started by the Runners years ago when the infrastructure first went down. The tale was designed to keep people in and around New Vancouver, to keep the port alive and thriving for the Runner ships that now ruled the sea. I should know: Seamus was one of the first who put it in the wind. With human nature being what it is, no matter how much our world crumbled, how much of it went to pure shit, gold was gold. And people would always want it. No, tonight there would be no gold found in New Vancouver. Tonight there would be only death.

“Blue,” Gabriel whispered, “is something happening?”

I took his hand in mine. The Runners were still arguing over me.

Holding Gabriel’s hand, I placed it over my heart.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Wave?”

His fingers splayed and the warmth of his touch on my breast brought tears to my eyes. There was no denying it: I had missed him.

Missed loving him.

And now to end like this?

That’s rich, Blue. In love with a Runner scum.

Uncle Seamus, once again in my mind. And he was right: I was in love with a Runner, this Runner. And always would be.

I looked at Gabriel, and even with his swollen eyes and battered face, he couldn’t have looked more beautiful.

Gabriel hung his head, clearly miserable that there was nothing he could do. He pulled me into his arms.

I risked the reprisal from the Kings of Pain, and clung to him for the first time since he had disappeared. I realized now that it wasn’t his fault. He had no say in the matter. No control. I knew what that was like. What my childhood was like.

He’d been caught in a trap, a setup, and now a death sentence. And Tsunami Blue—me—should have known better than to get us caught in her own wave. What a big help I was turning out to be.

I pushed away before we got caught in each other’s arms. It would only hasten Gabriel’s death. Something I just couldn’t bear.

“Where is the wave, exactly?” Gabriel asked, his voice strong, steady. I could tell he was thinking things through too, looking for options, for a way out, for a way to live. “Please tell me it’s not as far as New False Bay.” His voice broke. “The boys.”

I grabbed his hands in mine, “No, no, Gabriel. The boys are safe. The wave is here in New Vancouver, now.” I just couldn’t get into the fact that the boys were here too. What good purpose could it serve to worry Gabriel now? And I hadn’t lied: The boys were safe; I was sure of it.

“I can’t see. I’m too weak. I can’t stop it.”

I kissed his hands, his swollen knuckles, his broken nails. “No one can, Gabriel.”

“You don’t understand. I
need
my eyes. I can—”

“Break it up, you two.” Wolf Man approached us. He was having a hell of a time holding the wolves. I thought of the elephants in Sri Lanka who ran from the water long before anyone had a clue. If he didn’t release the animals soon, they’d turn on him.

“Trace and Indigo made a decision,” Wolf Man said, like a little kid who couldn’t wait to tell a secret. “Guess they’ll be sharing you.”

Sharing me? They were supposed to fight over me, and kill each other in the process. Simple.
Well, shit
. 

“What?” I stood up slowly. “Are they going to saw me in half?”

“Nope. A little threesome, as I understand. Trace has something special planned, I ‘ear.’” He motioned to my ear and laughed at his joke.

I, on the other hand, didn’t.

He’d been holding the leashes with two hands. He switched to one to grab his crotch, pumping forward and back. Like I’d never seen that before.

Still, it was a dangerous thing to do. The wolves worked as a pack, and the alpha, a huge black animal, led the way. He felt it in the leash, the weakness. All the animals needed was a spark. They got it from Gabriel. His fury was almost tangible.

He couldn’t see, but he took a gamble and swung, making a miraculous, brutal connection with Wolf Man. The brute went down with a thud.

“Tell the bastards,” Gabriel said in a voice that could cut steel, “that I don’t share.”

The black wolf broke first, turned on its handler and attacked. Wolf Man’s throat was torn out in thirty seconds. Four others followed suit.

It was just the chaos we needed.

The attacking wolves and subsequent body count threw a block for us.

I’m here, Blue
, the sea whispered to me.
I’ve arrived.

I looked for the bullhorn. Thank God it was where I had left it.

“So, don’t believe me, assholes? Well, have a look.” I dropped the bullhorn and passed the torch above my arm, illuminating the wave tattoo. Cobalt and aqua and turquoise danced in the light of the flames.

“Believe!” I screamed.

I watched as the crowd went from anger, to hate, to insanity. And I watched the water rush in and sweep around their legs. The wave was here.

“Satan,” someone yelled. The masses were on their feet, panicked and rushing the cage.

“Witch,” another chimed in. Bodies pushed and slammed against the wire.

“Whore,” another yelled. Well, now,
that
was beyond insulting.

Hundreds of people climbed the mesh, just as I had a short time ago.

I grabbed the torch and Gabriel’s hand and we ran for the back entrance that Snake had come through. The cage would be a death trap in a matter of minutes.

Trace’s and Indigo’s men tried to stop us. That lasted about two seconds. They jumped to “every man for himself” pretty damn quick. A world record, I was thinking. Runners—go figure.

I could hear Trace and Indigo swearing, screaming futile orders that were being ignored. How I prayed they would both drown. More and more screams filled the arena as the water, so strong now, swept in. In the crush of madness drums of burning oil overturned as people ran and pushed and trampled. Flames spread, first to the stage and then to bodies.

As the water rushed in, we ran out.

Out to the grassy knoll that went
up
and
up
and
up
.
Blessed up.

Gabriel tripped. “Blue, I’m slowing us down. I can’t see. I—”

“No. We can do this,” I shouted. I stopped and grabbed his swollen and battered hand. I could see what he couldn’t. Lions Gate Bridge. Reaching high into the night sky, with the tower at 364 feet, it would be a safe haven. If we could reach it in time, and we could climb—

 You can reach it, Blue. You can. Run, run, run
. The sea, whispering, like always.

“We’re running,” I said back. I knelt and helped Gabriel to his feet. I ran like the old days, when I was back on the beach with Max. And Gabriel, so strong, so brave, ran with me. And I was by his side for every stumble, every fall.

I told Gabriel I would not leave him.

I told him I didn’t care if he couldn’t see; I had always looked better in the dark.

I told him to get new friends, get Max back, build my kayak.

I told him to live for Nick and Alec.

I told him to live for me.

And last, I told him I loved him. Even if he was a Runner and a delivery boy and a dark angel who had made some bad choices. Nothing a twelve-step program couldn’t fix.

But the sea, unrelenting, once again caught up.

We were engulfed by salt water; the sea tore my hand from Gabriel’s grip and we were separated by foam and water and crashing debris.

The sound was deafening. Still I screamed for him. And I heard him scream for me.

“Damn it, you owe me,” I shouted at the sea. “You’ve taken my family. Please. Don’t take him too.”

 I felt myself lifted on the water, up and up. I stopped tumbling and I could swim; I could breathe; I could reach out to hang on to the steel girder that appeared before me. I slammed into the metal beam. My ribs screamed in protest. But I hung on. And all the while the sea laughed.

Gabriel was delivered to me moments later.

His strong arms held me and we found ourselves balanced precariously on the steel beam. Clinging to Gabriel, I watched the water as it tumbled and swept bodies of the dead on to final unknown resting places. And when I saw Ring Girl’s lifeless body battered by debris, I gripped Gabriel harder, knowing it could have been me.

The sea whispered to me:
A gift, Blue. A gift.
An amber float appeared. Such a small token for so much pain, for so much death…I let it slip away.

The once beautiful and famous Lions Gate Bridge was now a corroded and rusted skeleton of itself. Still, the bridge held strong, though it groaned and swayed as the water battered its base. I watched the water rise, while all along the sea whispered,
A little monster, Blue, just big enough to tickle your toes.

When the wave crested, just below my boots, and water started to slink back into the night, Gabriel finally dozed off in my arms. Fighting the cold and the wet and fog, he trembled in his sleep, and I heard him call my name. I talked with the sea, pleaded with it. “If you want to bring a gift, please, please, please bring me my boat.”

Moments later, the sea, the monster that had taken so much from me, finally gave something back. The sleek black-hulled sailboat rocked in the now receding waters just off to our left.

I looked at the sailboat I’d come to love, waiting for us, and I still could not believe it. I’d never asked the sea for so much. I’d never dreamed it would deliver.

We made our descent and scrambled aboard. As we sailed out of the inlet, I knew that New Vancouver was now New
New
Vancouver. I sighed and shook my head. Another coastline had changed, another city lost.