A Shade of Doubt (A Shade of Vampire #12)(16)

It didn’t smash. It barely even made a scratch. This was thick glass. I slammed against it again. A slightly stronger crack. Again and again I attacked the glass until finally it gave way.

I barely had time to hold my breath before water crashed over me, smashing me back against the door. The force of it was so overwhelming as the cabin filled up with water, I could barely move my limbs. The breath I’d taken hadn’t been deep enough. As shards of glass ripped my skin, I was already feeling my lungs—weakened from the smoke—beginning to strain and only a few seconds had passed. The submarine began to creak and groan as water leaked through the door into the corridor, and the vessel began sinking.

Gripping hold of a pipe in the ceiling, I forced myself forward. Although my limbs were screaming in agony, I continued to reach for fixture after fixture until I reached the window.

I could only thank the heavens that I’d thought to put the goggles on. I could see what I was doing at least. Without them, I doubted I would have had a chance in hell of surviving.

Squeezing myself through the cracked window, and grazing myself even more in the process, I kicked wildly toward the surface. A few more seconds, and I knew my lungs would give in. The weight of the submarine sinking was causing suction, dragging me down. I felt darkness closing in on my vision. Everything was becoming hazy.

I was about to lose all hope of ever reaching the surface when a strong arm wrapped around my waist, jerking me up to the surface. As I was lifted up above the waves, I gasped for breath too early and swallowed several mouthfuls of sea water. I choked and spluttered, gasping for breath. My vision was still unfocused. My head felt like it was splitting in two. Even though I had air now, I was finding it hard to breathe properly. Each time I tried, it was only shallow breaths, not enough to satisfy my sore lungs.

I was dragged through the water. I felt sand beneath me.

“Rose.”

The goggles were torn from my head. Legs closed around my hips. Hands pumped my chest. Fingers pinched my nose. And then a cold mouth sealed over my lips, breathing life into me.

My vision came into focus for but a moment—enough to see Caleb’s chocolate-brown eyes less than an inch away. Then I lost consciousness.

Chapter 10: Rose

A warm breeze blew over me. I opened my eyes. I was staring up at a roof of glistening leaves. In the distance, waves crashed against the shore. I tried to sit up, but hands pushed me back down.

“Don’t sit up so fast.”

I turned my head to the side to see Caleb sitting beside me. I was lying on a bed of leaves piled on top of sand.

His face was lined with worry as he looked at me. He reached out and touched my face, brushing hair away from my forehead.

“Oh, thank God.” To my right, Annora knelt in the sand. She had a look of relief on her face. “We thought we might have lost you.”

Memories of the burning submarine came flooding back.

“Would you like some coconut water?” she asked.

I just glared at her and turned the other way to face Caleb again. Caleb took the coconut from Annora and, sliding his arm around my back, helped me sit up and drink.

My head still felt dizzy, though my cuts seemed to have healed. I guessed Caleb had dripped his blood into my mouth while I’d been asleep.

He looked at Annora pointedly. “Apparently, something blew in the engine room and the force of the explosion unearthed the anchor.”

Annora nodded. “I only just got out in time myself.”

Clearly, Caleb had doubts about the story Annora had fed him. Though neither of us could prove that she had just attempted to murder me, I knew the truth.

But I wasn’t going to bring it up with Caleb. I wanted to handle the bitch myself.

“So now what?” I said, rubbing my head. “We’ve just lost the one safe place we had to sleep. Along with all the food and water we had there.”

“I’d almost finished scanning the island when I heard the explosion and came running back.” Caleb said. “I found nothing but jungle and beaches during that time. I’ll need to complete the search still, but it doesn’t look hopeful.”

That’s just great.

I shot another glare at Annora. I hadn’t believed it possible to hate her more than I already did. Well, she’d just managed to prove me wrong. Thanks to her, we’d lost everything that would have made surviving on this island a bit more bearable—comfortable beds, showers, toilets, food, fresh water, and clothes.

Now we had nothing but the clothes on our back. Hell, I didn’t even have shoes.

Images flitted through my head of Annora and I running around in bikinis made out of palm leaves. Caleb wearing a loincloth…

“What about you?” I looked at Caleb. “Aren’t you craving blood?”

“I found a boar while I was out last night. How are you feeling?”

“Okay. I think I can stand now.” Gripping the trunk of a tree nearby, I slowly propped myself up. Blood rushed through my head, blinding me suddenly. I closed my eyes, waiting for it to pass.

When I opened them again, I could see fine. My knees were a little shaky, but nothing that I wouldn’t recover from soon enough.

I realized only now that my pants were so torn, my underwear had been showing all this time. I supposed I’d better start getting used to wearing fewer clothes…

Caleb rose with me, indicating that Annora do the same. “We should find somewhere to sleep tonight before it gets dark. We’ll have to find somewhere up in the trees, near a stream. I passed by one last night, so I think I know where to look first.”