On the Prowl (Bad Things #2)(15)

Her heart slammed into her ribs—and she slammed her elbow into Julian. He grunted, as if surprised, but his hold didn’t loosen.

“He’s dying!”

Julian stopped swimming. His gaze met hers. “He was going to kill you. That means to me…he is dead.”

But she shook her head. We’re wasting time…time that human doesn’t have. “You cut the bomb off him. You were trying to save him. You might pretend to be some heartless bad-ass, but you’re not. You saw a terrified kid, same as me, you saw—”

He jerked her even closer, smashing her body against his. “I was trying to cut through the wires and stop the bomb, not save the jackass.”

She blinked. Was that true?

“I am a heartless bad-ass. You need to remember that shit.” His jaw hardened. “Now we’re getting the f*ck out of here. This place was a trap. I need to regroup and figure out what the hell is happening.”

“I can’t leave him.” It was her human side talking, the side she hadn’t been able to kill. The side others hadn’t been able to kill, either. “Please, Julian, just get him out of the water. Or let me go so I can get him. I’ll make a deal with you.” Her words tumbled out because the kid was gone. Sinking to a watery grave. “I’ll give you anything you want, just—”

“Deal,” he said flatly.

And just like that, he let her go.

He sank beneath the water, seeming to drop like a stone. One moment, he was there. The next, he was just gone. She spun around, looking for him, then she dove under the water, heading toward the general direction that she thought the human was in. The water was dark and murky, and there were no stars out, there was only the waves, only the ocean stretching and—

Julian’s eyes. Julian’s glowing, golden eyes.

He was in front of her. And he had the human. Julian caught her wrist and they kicked toward the surface. Then they were moving—so fast. She used her own speed and strength to help Julian. They didn’t swim back to the dock, but instead they traveled to a small beach just a bit down the shoreline. Julian carried the boy out, and the fellow wasn’t moving. He hung like a rag doll in Julian’s arms. Julian dumped the boy on the beach.

“A deal is a deal.”

She scrambled toward the human. Was he even breathing? She put her fingers to his throat. Rose didn’t feel a pulse. She put her ear next to his mouth. There was no stir of air. And he felt so cold. God. They’d gotten him too late.

She started CPR, pushing down with her compressions. She’d just counted her tenth compression when—

He choked up air. Yes! He choked and sputtered and seemed to vomit out water as he turned onto his side. He was alive. They’d saved him and—

And Julian already had his claws at the kid’s throat.

“Julian, seriously, give the guy a minute.” But she kept her voice low. They weren’t that far from the flames. Other humans were over there. She could hear their voices. It wasn’t as if folks could just ignore flames shooting into the sky—that show had attracted plenty of attention.

And attention was a bad thing in the paranormal world.

“Who are you?” Julian’s voice was cold and hard as he glared at the kid.

The human trembled.

“I don’t ask questions twice.” His claws cut into the guy’s skin. “Remember that.”

“F-Francis Haddow…” He licked his lips. “Friends…call me Frankie.”

“Do I look like I’m your f*cking friend?”

Francis shook his head.

“Why the hell did you try to kill yourself and us?”

Francis’s eyes ballooned. “What? No!” His body trembled. “No, no, I—”

Julian yanked him up and pointed toward the flames. “You see that big ball of fire over there? You did that, mate. You set off a bomb on the Pandora. You nearly killed yourself and you tried to take us to hell with you.”

“OhmyGod.” Francis shuddered. He couldn’t seem to stop shuddering. “No, no, no. I was just at a bar, I used my fake ID, I got inside and then…” His eyes squeezed shut. “I don’t know what happened, I swear, I don’t know!”

“You were mumbling your ‘Simon says’ bullshit constantly and now you want me to buy that you don’t remember—” But Julian broke off. Then he swore. A lot. And his British accent got thicker.

A sign that wasn’t good. She’d learned that. Usually, his accent just flowed lightly beneath his words—like when he called her love. But when he went all clipped with his voice…she knew that meant trouble.

“Nice one, you dodgy bastard.” Julian glared at the flames in the distance. “Nice one.”

Uh, from where she was standing, there was nothing nice about it.

Julian pulled the human up by the scruff of his neck. “You’re coming with us, Francis.”

“No!” Francis was almost yelling. A bad thing considering they didn’t want to attract any attention. “I’m going home.” He tried to run.

Rose winced because she knew that plan wasn’t going to work out for him.

It didn’t. Francis made it maybe two feet before Julian’s fist plowed into his face…and down Francis went. He was out completely.