Chapter 45

I screamed as Connor and I followed him, holding hands as we sailed over the cliff and the rocks. Our fall stole my breath and whipped my hair. Connor released my hand so we wouldn’t get tangled up, then he pointed his toes and lined up to land feet first. I twisted in the air and copied him as best I could. Our eyes locked as we hit the freezing water.

It felt like I had struck concrete. The air left in my lungs whooshed out with the force of the fall and the icy cold. For a moment I froze before instinct kicked in and I started kicking for the surface. My life jacket had inflated; with Connor’s arm around my waist, the buoyancy of his life jacket and both of us kicking, we shot upwards.

As we burst to the surface, I gasped for air and followed that with a rib-cracking round of coughing. Once I could breathe again, I looked around for Thomas, Sidnee and Gunnar. Gunnar had to be okay – he had to be.

Thomas was calmly treading water, one hand holding Sidnee’s head so she floated alongside him. Relief swamped me as I caught sight of Gunnar’s red-gold hair bobbing rapidly; he was alive and swimming towards us. The kushtaka was still screaming on the cliffs above us, but hopefully it would let us go now that we weren’t on the island – unless it also counted the water as its territory.

The surf was throwing us around. As I looked upwards, rain gushed from the clouds and the wind picked up a notch. The promised storm was here. Of course it was.

We were wearing life jackets, but Sidnee wasn’t. That wouldn’t have been a problem if she’d been awake and in mer form, but she was unconscious and in human form. The way Thomas was supporting her suggested she was no better off than the rest of us.

‘You okay?’ Connor asked, checking me anxiously.

‘I’m good. Can you help Thomas with Sidnee?’

Connor looked me over once more to make sure I seemed to be confident in the water. I wasn’t the best swimmer but I was doing fine – I’d splashed around in Mum’s pool often enough.

He swam rapidly to Thomas and the two men spoke quietly before Thomas passed over Sidnee. Connor wrapped his arm around her chest and started kicking away from the rocks and out past the breaking surf. I swam after him, as did the other two men. We had to get back to the boat – and fast. Even with my vampire resistance to cold, the water temperature was a danger and I could feel the icy depths sapping my strength. Thomas, Sidnee and Gunnar were at even higher risk.

To add to the fun, we had to worry if Chris was below us in his sea-lion form. And obviously there was the ever-present worry of freaking sharks. I tried to stop humming the Jaws theme tune and kept moving.

Once we were beyond the surf, Connor took charge. ‘We won’t make it to the boat. We have to get to shore and out of this water,’ he yelled. ‘I’m going to swim ahead. Sidnee has stopped shivering and that’s a bad sign. I’ve got to get her onto land.’ He turned on his vampire speed and I watched him move away from us.

‘Thomas, are you alright?’ I called. His dusky skin was turning blue.

‘I’ll make it to shore,’ he said through gritted teeth, but he was shivering hard, as was Gunnar. I was also shivering; swimming wasn’t keeping me warm. I wondered if my fire magic would work in water, if it could warm us even a little.

I trod water, closed my eyes and tried to sense that core of heat in my centre. It was there, tamped down and low. I needed to build it up, to let it warm me and then warm my friends. But I was so damned cold…

I needed rage or another strong emotion. I started thinking about Chris and how the bastard had lured Sidnee here. My anger started to grow and I focused on my ball of fire, stoking it with more images of what Chris had done to my friend. I pictured Sidnee with her arm at an angle that was so wrong. I was warming up.

‘Bunny, keep swimming!’ Gunnar shouted. He and Thomas had pulled further away.

I kept my heat close and, using vampire speed, soon caught up. ‘Stay close. I’ll try to warm the water around us,’ I said when I was only a few feet away from them.

I closed my eyes again. Used more images of Sidnee, small and broken on the rocks, I pushed out the fire. The water lit up and instantly heat blossomed around me. I’d made the water hot – too hot. It was uncomfortable, though the heat faded fast.

‘God that was nice,’ Thomas muttered.

I tried to do it again, but the embers of my fire were at an all-time low and no matter how much I tried to stoke them there was no more fire. We swam on until we reached the spot where Connor left the water. He had taken off his shirt and was holding Sidnee’s naked body to his own, hoping to keep her from hypothermia.

We dragged ourselves out of the water and onto the beach. We still weren’t in sight of the boat so someone needed to fetch it – and that meant more swimming. First thing, though, we needed a fire. The men stripped off their sodden shirts and pants – which I could have lived without seeing – but they kept on their underwear for my benefit.

They quickly gathered wood. I was so exhausted and cold that my inner fire could only sputter out of me, but I summoned a pathetic spark that was enough to start a blaze. Now Thomas and Connor were both hugging Sidnee; if she’d been conscious, she would have loved the man sandwich. They moved her closer to the fire.

‘I’ll get the boat,’ I said. ‘We need to get Sidnee dressed and somewhere warm.’

‘I’ll go,’ Connor offered.

‘I’m the best choice. I can warm myself if I need to.’ Probably. ‘And we don’t know how far away it is.’

‘You can barely summon a flame,’ he countered. He’d noticed that, had he? Damn. ‘I’m the least affected so I’ll go.’

I didn’t want him to, but I wasn’t half the swimmer he was. He was the logical choice, and my brain told my fearful heart to shut the fuck up. ‘Okay,’ I conceded. ‘But be safe, okay?’

He smiled and brushed my lips with a kiss. ‘You bet.’

I watched him walk boldly into the water before he dived in and started sliding through the waves. Without the burden of Sidnee, he was soon out of sight.

I turned back to Sidnee. ‘How is she?’ I asked Thomas.

He shook his head grimly. ‘Not good. She’s still not shivering and her pulse is weak.’ All we could do was wait for Stan to arrive in the skiff. I’d never felt so helpless in my life; I hated being dependent on Connor making it to the boat and Stan coming to get us.

Then the weeping wail of the Kushtaka drifted down to us from the cliffs and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. We hadn’t made it far enough away.

Shit.