11. Grace

Chapter 11

Grace

M icaela had come back by the time I'd entered our suite last night. She'd spent all day with that creepy guy from breakfast, and then came back for the night shift to protect me. And of course there was Kazi.

Kazi, who was on my deck staring at the sea like some kind of emo lion again. I leaned down to run my fingers through the fur on the back of his neck. "Are you in love with a mermaid or something?"

He snuffed, and I could swear he rolled his eyes at me. "A giant fish?" He snuffed again. "Okay, are you just dreaming about seafood, then?"

He sighed and sat down, then lay with his head on his paws. I sat in my lounge chair next to him to keep him company. I wasn't sure why he kept staring out at the sea, but... maybe he just missed other lions? While many lions were part of a pride, mountain lions were very solitary creatures.

The problem was that Kazi didn't seem to follow most mountain lion social traits. Instead of shying from others and preferring to spend his days in isolation, he was the world's biggest cat-extrovert. I knew Sebastian was often busy, and he wasn't making the rounds of the ship like he used to because he was busy protecting me, so it was very possible that Kazi was lonely.

I sat up, determined to help him. "Kazi, let's go visit people." Kazi immediately jumped up and waited for me by the door, looking excited, if I was any judge of cat expressions, which I was quickly becoming.

What followed can only be described as a nauseating (for me) extrovert extravaganza. Micaela, Kazi and I went deck by deck so that Kazi could visit all of his friends on the ship; from down deep on the Orlop Deck, all the way up to the Captain on the Bridge. Everyone's face lit up when they saw him. They all interacted with him for a few minutes, giving him lots of love, before they went back to their duties. It genuinely seemed like he knew every person on the ship.

When we got back to the room, it was close to lunchtime, and I was ready to take a nap. I was sure my sneakers had holes in them from how much we'd walked. No wonder Kazi was in such wonderful condition. He walked everywhere! And that didn't even touch how much swimming he did in his pool on the top deck.

As we rested and got ready to eat lunch before going on an excursion that Mama had picked out, I thought about what had happened the day before. It could have been a random event. But I was getting a bad feeling it wasn't, and I could tell Sebastian had been skeptical about the diver's aim. I didn't need him to say it. He thought they'd been aiming for me and not the dolphins. And the power that had burst out of me! It had shocked me senseless. So much so that I'd been struck dumb for a few moments, just bleeding in the water like a shark's favorite dream, staring stupidly at where the scuba diver had been just moments before. It had only been the dolphins and Rafe that had brought me back to myself and my injury.

I frowned at the bandage on my hand. It hurt, but I hadn't taken my pain pills yet for today. I'd held off, hoping I wouldn't need them. They were Tylenol with codeine, and I always reacted funny to codeine. It made me loopy and the slightest bit itchy. It looked like I might need to take at least a half-dose, though.

Rafe had said it was too bad we didn't have any elves on board, because they could brew potions that healed injuries and illnesses much quicker than conventional means. I needed to use that in my next book about elves. It was a cool fact, and one that should be fictionally exploited.

After lunch, Mama, Rafe, and I all loaded up in the ferry boat and made it to shore by late afternoon. We were trying to catch an excursion that Mama promised involved no ocean and tons of fun. I was a little hesitant, though. I was trying not to borrow trouble, but I had no desire to lose the use of my other hand. Right now I could henpeck my keyboard, so I could still write. But if I lost the use of my left hand, I would be reduced to typing with my nose. And no one wanted to see that, not to mention the abuse to my poor nose.

We got out of the Jeep and stood in front of a building deep in the trees. A sign out front boasted that it had eight ziplines. I looked at the three hundred or so stairs to get to the first platform and groaned aloud. I was not impressed.

"Mama, are you trying to kill me?"

Mama shook her head, and Rafe elbowed me in a friendly way. "I can carry you," he offered, giving me a goofy, lecherous grin, which got a laugh out of me.

I sighed. "Ask me in about two hundred stairs."

Mama impressively made it to the top without complaining even once, though she walked gingerly and I could tell her knees were smarting.

Rafe breezed up the steps double-time while chatting the whole while with the slowpokes behind him, never missing a beat.

I trudged, huffing and puffing miserably all the way to the top.

When I reached the summit, I hunched over with my good hand on my knee, trying to get enough air into my lungs before they collapsed in well-deserved defeat and I died. As I continued to gasp, I considered that death might be a real possibility. Did sirens have asthma? I'd have to ask Sebastian.

Mama rubbed my back while she and Rafe listened to the employee on the platform explain the course we would take through the trees, some safety concerns and tips, and the different configurations of harnesses they had, depending on how you wanted to be positioned as you ziplined.

The guide looked at my hand and the bandage. "You're going to have to go Superman style. Basically horizontal, with your stomach facing downward."

I nodded. That actually sounded more secure to me, and more fun. "Sounds good." I looked at Rafe and Mama. "Who goes first?"

Rafe and Mama looked at each other, and then Mama held out a fist to Rafe to play rock, paper, scissors. She cackled like a villain when she won, and Rafe came back to stand next to me. I could tell he was trying not to pout.

We were all wearing sunglasses because Mama had warned us to grab a pair before we'd left the ship. I was glad she did, because the sun was not only super-hot today, but really bright, especially up here in the treetops.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Rafe asked as the employee got Mama into her harness.

I shook my head. "Thankfully no. My Achilles heel is tight spaces."

Rafe nodded, and I noticed for the first time that he was sweating. I'd never seen him sweat before. "I'm afraid of heights."

I gaped at him, then leaned in closer so the employee wouldn't hear us. "Aren't you a bird shifter?"

He shrugged. "I'm in control as a bird. Here, I'm not."

"I'd offer to ride with you, but I don't think it's possible with my harness."

Rafe gave me a funny look. "I enjoy living, thank you. I'll go alone. Who knows? I may like it as much as flying as an eagle."

"You can do Superman too. It'd be more natural for you that way."

He nodded just as Mama jumped off the platform, hooting and cheering as she picked up speed. By the time she approached the next platform way in the distance, she was laughing like a loon.

Had I known that my mama was an adrenaline junkie before this? I didn't think I had.

Rafe wanted me to go next, because he wanted to guard my back, so the guy strapped me into my harness, taking a few extra moments to tug on the straps to make sure they were tight but not too tight. It wasn't crazy comfortable—the straps dug into my thighs—but it felt really secure. As my security for the day, Rafe checked all the straps again before he would allow the employee to send me on my way. When I was cleared to go, the employee gave me a shove and away I went.

I laughed and held my arms out like Superman, gazing in wonder at the trees and treetops around me.

"This. Is. Awesome!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I could hear Mama laughing and Rafe grumbling. Birds soared above and below me, which worried me at first, but they were masters of the sky and knew how to stay in their own lanes. I spotted some wildlife on the forest floor, but it was hard to see very well because I was so high up. Instead, I just focused on the feeling of the total and complete freedom I felt as I zoomed through the trees.

Ziplining was going to be an addiction for me. I knew it instantly.

I slowed as I approached the next platform and a female employee standing there stopped me fully and unhooked all of my straps while we waited for Rafe to complete his first leg of the course. I wasn't sure that she was supposed to unhook every strap, but she worked here, so she obviously knew what she was doing. I decided not to say anything.

Her face looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place her, and I didn't want to be rude and stare, so I avoided looking at her completely. When Rafe reached us, he looked me over to be sure I was okay before high-fiving Mama, whose cheeks were flushed with excitement.

"Is it as good as the real thing?" I asked, curious.

Rafe scoffed. "Not even close. But if you don't have wings, it's fairly decent."

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Show off. Let's do the same order, Mama. You go first."

Mama nodded, and the lady hooked her up to the next segment. Mama jumped off with a whoop and a cackle and zoomed away. The female employee turned to work on me next, and I felt a prickly feeling wash over me. Kind of like the feeling you got when someone was watching you. I casually glanced around, but no one was in sight other than Mama, long gone down the zipline, Rafe, and the female employee, who was strapping me in with rough, jerky movements.

Rafe, because he was observant and obviously in tune with me, picked up on my unease. I couldn't explain it, but I suddenly didn't feel safe. And I was getting weird vibes from the employee. Her presence felt dampened in a weird way, and I couldn't read her. I was starting to think all of this fresh air and exercise was rotting my brain.

Rafe took another look at my face and took charge. "We're going together. We need a tandem harness."

Frustration flashed in the woman's expression for a moment before she schooled her expression again and got to work preparing our tandem harness.

I let out a shaky breath, nodding. Yes, this was better.

She hooked up Rafe first, as he would be in the forward position, with me behind him. She strapped me in last, checking the harness several times to make sure everything was secure, before she pushed us off the platform.

For a few moments, everything was as it had been the first leg of our course. The breeze was cooling off my heated skin, and the birds soared above us, some of them cawing at Rafe in bird brother and bird sister greeting as he passed. I grinned at the thought and then laughed. It was so cool to be a part of the paranormal world!

My initial unease had left, but I had my good arm woven through the back of one of Rafe's straps, just in case.

At the midway point, Rafe craned his neck to look back at me. "You okay?"

I nodded like a bobble head, probably grinning like a fool. "Yeah!"

And you know how in life sometimes there was terrible irony?

Yeah.

I should have known.

In mere seconds, we went from zooming down the line at a quick pace to jerking to a complete stop with sudden, violent force. The cable that connected me to the main cable line above me snapped off while simultaneously the straps all along Rafe's back shredded apart. The straps around his waist and under his backside were still in place, and he was still holding on with both hands to the holding bars above him, but we had disconnected from each other, the remaining itty-bitty straps that still attached the two of us all that kept me from plummeting hundreds of feet down to the ground.

I screamed, flipping upside-down, still connected to the strap around Rafe's waist and thighs. Gravity tried to wrench me out of the rest of my harness, but I held on for dear life with both hands now, despite my injury.

Rafe shouted, one hand snapping instantly downward to grab the torn straps that had connected me to him. He grunted as he took on most of the weight of my body.

"Hold on!" he yelled, and I wanted to shout back, "Of course I'm holding on!"

I had the brief image of how idiotic we must look, mirror images of each other in placement, but then disaster struck again. And just like when we'd violently screeched to a stop a moment ago, it all seemed to happen again at once. One of Rafe's buckles snapped just like mine had. The titanium buckles that hooked his harness to the main cable. He still had another one, but because the buckle caught and then got tangled after it partially snapped, we stopped so suddenly that my hands wrenched loose of the stranglehold I had on Rafe's straps.

I screamed as I dangled below him. We were now canted at a steep angle, neither of us strapped into the harness as intended, both of us holding on to various things for dear life. I scrunched up enough to grab the strap below Rafe. It took me three tries because of the difficult angle, and I kept accidentally touching Rafe's butt, but I finally managed to grab it again. I'd apologize later for the liberties I was taking once were no longer in danger of dying.

"Rafe, shift and get help! No one can see us here!" It was only after I suggested it I realized that if he shifted, I would fall. I blamed my idiocy on all the blood rushing to my head.

"If you make one more idiotic suggestion, I'm going to toss you into shark-infested waters at my next opportunity," he snarled.

Rafe, still holding onto my straps with one hand and onto the bar above him with the other, couldn't do anything to help our situation.

It was up to me.

I didn't hold out much hope for our survival, because a gymnast, I was not.

I scrunched up again, doing a reverse crunch until I got my other hand around his butt strap, and then I pulled myself up using straps and Rafe's clothing, apologizing as I went, until I was more facing him chest to chest. The only problem was, the harness straps still connected to Rafe had become hopelessly snarled, and neither one of us had a hand free to loosen them so I could take off the broken clamp to allow us to slide down to the next platform.

Where were the employees? By now, they'd surely realized that something had happened? We'd been gone too long!

I blinked when I looked down and saw a cute, tiny, fuzzy bat land on my tennis shoe.

"Rafe?"

"Yes?"

"Aren't bats nocturnal?"

Rafe's head snapped down so fast to where I was chin pointing that I knew for sure he'd need a chiropractic adjustment after we got back to the ship. If we got back to the ship.

"Bash," Rafe snarled. "Help us, you leech-brained vampire bat!"

Bash? Short for Sebastian? Wait, could vampires really turn into bats? I was gobsmacked. I'd thought the bat legends about vampires were untrue! I'd always privately scoffed at them, and I had never even thought to add them to my books because I'd always found the idea that vampires could turn into bats ridiculous.

"You are torso to torso with the love of my life and her injured hand is bleeding," the bat said.

I blinked. It could speak? And, wait! The love of his life?

I shook my head, refocusing on me and Rafe not dying. It didn't matter that the little adorable Bash bat could speak. Or the other... thing he'd said. We needed to get out of this predicament first, and then I could contemplate the other stuff. I was going with magic for now. That explained all the confusing parts about the supernatural world, anyway.

"Change, lummox," Rafe snarled again. "You can't help us as a bat and my hands are cramping." He grunted as he said the last bit, and I stared wide-eyed as Sebastian was suddenly in front of me as himself, gripping the main cable with one hand and trying to unsnarl my harness with the other. When he couldn't do it by hand, he patted Rafe's pockets and came up with a pocketknife. Apparently, the world over, men carried pocketknives.

He started hacking quickly at the harness pieces that connected me to Rafe.

"Umm, should you be doing that? Why not just unstick the broken clamp? It will allow us to slide downwards to the next platform."

Sebastian clamped the knife between his teeth as he maneuvered some straps with his bare hands and then grabbed the knife again. "Because if I can get you detached from him, I can wrap the lower cable around your waist and push you to the next platform. If worse comes to worst, he can shift, and I don't want him taking you down with him when the idiot has wings."

"Thanks so much," Rafe said drolly. "Really, you're such a good friend."

"And how are we going to explain that you happen to be up here hanging out with us?" I asked.

Sebastian laughed. "I'll change back to a bat. They won't see me."

I was losing my mind; I was sure of it. My mama was probably worried sick right now. Where were the employees!?

I mean, I didn't want them to swing in like Tarzan right now because of Sebastian, but a few moments ago would have been great!

Sebastian made the last cut through the last harness and I screamed as I slipped down Rafe's torso. My face ended up in his navel, and I swear I could hear his pants rip as I gripped his waistband in a death grip.

Sebastian tugged me back up so that I was flush with Rafe's chest again. Rafe was sweating, and his face was red with strain as he used his free hand and arm to wrap around me and clutch me to him tightly. As he did that, Sebastian grabbed the cable that was dangling beside us and threaded it through all the belt loops in my pants, then wrapped it several more times around me before he tied a complicated-looking knot one-handed, which I was greatly impressed by because I couldn't tie an easy knot with both hands.

Then Sebastian snapped off the titanium broken clamp with his bare hands, and Rafe and I started sliding again, quickly building up speed. The tiny Sebastian bat flew to a tree and perched there, waiting for us to make it to the next platform safely.

When we arrived at the platform, there almost wasn't room for us to land. Four people were already crowding the pocket-sized space, with Rafe and I making six.

Mama was lecturing the employees and managing to look terrified at the same time. A woman who appeared as though she'd been in a brawl, with one eye forming a swollen shiner, was holding her left arm at an awkward angle while she talked to a broad-chested police officer. And the other employee, who looked young, new, and terrified, caught us as we came in and then he and the female employee got to work cutting us loose.

While everyone was shouting questions at us, Rafe and I just clung to each other until my knees didn't threaten to buckle underneath me and my ears stopped ringing from overwhelming fear. I was sure Rafe was fine, but I really needed a hug right then, and we'd survived something awful together. He was now one of my very best friends, whether he wanted to be or not. We broke apart when Sebastian growled at Rafe from a tree directly above us.

Mama wrapped an arm around my waist and laid her forehead against my back, shaking like a leaf. I could hear her giving thanks in prayer aloud that we'd make it back alive.

When we were all cleared to get off the platform, the police officer went first, helping the female employee who had a possible broken arm, then Rafe and I went, followed by the male employee who still looked green around the gills at the near disaster.

When we reached the bottom of the very long ladder along the side of the platform, Sebastian was standing there in a full fury. I wanted to run and hide, and I wasn't the one he was furious with.

Sebastian put his arms around me and brought me into full contact with his body. Emotions palpably roiled off of him, but the moment I was in his arms, I could feel him calm and relax. I patted Sebastian's arms, my heart still beating a rat-a-tat-tat in my chest, and sank into his warmth, closing my eyes at the instant comfort I always felt when he wrapped his arms around me.

And I'd asked to go slowly with him. Who wanted to go slowly with a man like Sebastian! Idiots , that's who. Me, I'm the idiot. Sebastian had made every accommodation for me. He'd saved me, taken care of me, made me laugh and swoon, and made me feel like I could be myself. I felt safe with him. And, really, I was beginning to think that Sebastian was just plain mine. Perhaps he was my other half, my mate?

He'd warned me that the battle for my heart was a battle that he took very seriously. I hadn't realized just how seriously until today. I wanted to wave the white flag of surrender, because I was won.

My adrenaline finally plummeted after being sky high for such a long period of time, and my eyes started to sting. I wasn't prone to crying much, but I was exhausted, my hand hurt and was bleeding again, my body was sore, and I was angry that each time I got off the ship, something awful happened. How had this happened? When I stepped out of Sebastian's arms and looked around at the modest group of people gathered around us, I noticed we were missing a person.

"Where's the female employee who was on the second platform?"

At my question, everyone who'd been talking quietly around Sebastian and I, giving us space and privacy, were suddenly staring at me.

"Blonde hair in a ponytail? Way taller than me?" I held my hand above my head to show about how much taller she was than me.

Two of the employees, one male—our first platform person—and the other female who'd helped us at our third platform, looked at each other. The girl shifted painfully and turned back to us. "She beat me up and shoved me in a locker. She must have taken my uniform in order to take my spot on the platform, because I woke up in the locker in my underwear." I glanced down, only just noticing that she was wearing an ill-fitting uniform two sizes too big for her. Probably an extra they'd had on hand in the office.

The police officer was writing everything down. "Description?" he asked. The female employee, Giana, and I worked together to come up with a description to give him, while Sebastian and Rafe spoke quietly a few paces away from us. After they finished, Rafe excused himself to use the restroom, and Sebastian stayed like glue by my side.

"We've had one other incident in Oahu," Sebastian told the police officer. "We were doing an excursion, diving with turtles and dolphins, when a scuba diver took a shot at Grace with a speargun. It speared through the palm of her hand. The scuba diver disappeared, and the police still haven't found any leads."

The grizzled veteran wrote the details down on his notepad and eyed me, his bushy eyebrows twitching. "Sounds like someone is stalking you, Miss Liora."

I let out a shaky breath. "Yes, sir. It does appear that way."