Gaslight (Crossbreed #4)(101)

Darkness enveloped me like a promise of death. Was I swimming in the right direction?

Don’t panic.

I stopped for a moment and slowly released a pocket of air through my mouth to feel the direction of the bubbles. When one tickled my cheek to the back of my ear, I changed direction and swam. Christian had given me my only swimming lesson, and I imitated those movements, my body remembering what to do.

My lungs constricted, as carbon dioxide had nowhere to go. I released a few breaths to relieve the pressure, the need to inhale overpowering all rational thought. When my head suddenly breached the surface, I inhaled air and water all at once. It was impossible to get a satisfactory breath and tread water at the same time—especially when I didn’t have much experience swimming, outside of plummeting from bridges and airplanes. Going under, I reached out with one arm and then the other, my feet kicking behind me. The strange part was the sense of calm that swept over me. Jumping was the scary part, but after that, all I could do was sink or swim. Maybe Fletcher had something to do with that survival switch in my head. Self-preservation only meant something if I tracked down these bastards and killed them. My life had a purpose, and it wasn’t just to breathe and see another day. Every stroke of my arm was a promise to make men suffer.

“Raven, I’m coming!” Christian shouted.

He swam like a tidal wave heading my way. When he reached me, he hooked his arm around my middle. “You’re not getting anywhere against the current. Hold on to my neck.”

Ignoring him, I kept swimming.

He floated in front of me and forced me to stop. “Would you like to catch them tonight, or do you like swimming in place? Take a breath, Raven. Let me do all the work.”

Exhausted and coughing uncontrollably, I wrapped my arm around his neck. Another few minutes of that, and I would have been whale food. Christian veered right, and I lay on his back while he swam to shore.

My muscles tightened as the frigid waters rapidly lowered my body temperature. Up ahead, I could see Viktor on the shore, wringing out his shirt. An intense glow raged behind him from a fire where our plane had crashed. Smoke billowed, and the smell of burning rubber violated the pristine air. Christian dragged me onto the rocky shore, and I just lay there, utterly frozen. He removed my coat and stripped off my sweater.

“That doesn’t feel any better,” I said, my teeth chattering.

He wrung out my clothes, using his strength to shake the water from them.

I licked the brackish water off my lips and forced myself to sit up. “Maybe we should sit by the fire,” I suggested, staring at the inferno behind him.

“You need to stand up and circulate your blood.”

I staggered to my feet, my body shivering uncontrollably in a feeble attempt to stay warm. The wind made it unbearable, so I folded my arms tightly around myself and walked in place.

He raked back his wet hair. “Once you learn you’re not going to die from a thing, it’s easier to get off your arse.”

“Says the man impervious to cold.”

A familiar cry sounded overhead, and a falcon swooped into sight, landing on the rocks. In a movement of magic, it shifted into a beautiful woman. Blue’s long brown hair shielded her breasts, and she panted heavily from exhaustion.

Viktor knelt beside her.

“I’m all right,” she said, still on her knees. “Their plane landed a mile from here. I perched nearby to listen in, and they’re taking a car to a private shipyard. I don’t know if the ship’s there or when it leaves, so you don’t have much time.”

He warmed her shoulders with his hands. “Which way?”

She pointed up the beach. “East. You shouldn’t have problems finding it as long as there aren’t any obstacles. But it’s a Breed shipyard, and I don’t know anything about who runs it or how far it is. We have to be careful.”

“Nyet,” he said. “You stay here and rest. It was a long flight, and you have done your duty. You’re no good to me when you’re weak. Come find us once you have rested up.”

“I need to fly around and find fresh water,” she said, licking her dry lips.

When she raised her arms, Viktor backed away to make room for her flight into the trees.

“How the hell did she keep up?” I wondered aloud.

Viktor rubbed his bare chest as if the friction might spark a fire. “Falcons are renowned for their speed. She can increase altitude and perform a stoop that exceeds two hundred miles per hour. Easy to do when the plane was flying low and slow. We can’t waste time talking.”

Christian tossed me my sweater and coat, which felt a little drier. Either that, or I’d gone completely numb.

He reached down and untied his laces. “Everyone shake the water out of your shoes and squeeze out your socks.”

“We don’t have time for dry feet,” I argued.

Viktor gave him a curt look that declared he was taking my side.

Christian shook the water from his boot. “If they have Vampires working the shipyard, they’ll hear you squishing around in those shoes a mile away. No one in their right mind is walking around in wet shoes, so let’s not give them reason to find us sooner.”

Viktor suddenly shifted to wolf form and took off.

As I watched him disappear into the shadows, my eyes drifted up to a greenish hue on the horizon. “Is that a city?”