Chapter Thirty

Ben flew low over the waters of the Frederick Sound, scanning the cloudy night for any hint of light.

Stars, ships, flickers of civilization. Anything.

He glanced over his shoulder at his mate. "You're loving this, aren't you?"

Her moon-pale face in the color-leached night was glowing. "There's nothing. No people. I smell air and water and animals."

"And no boats."

"Not true." Tenzin pointed at distant green lights. "There are many boats, including cargo ships, because I can smell the fuel, but not anything like what we're looking for."

What they were looking for was a floating city, a vessel that looked out of place but not too out of place. One with lights and activity despite the winter cold.

He scanned the mountains on either side of the long bay they were flying over. Hills rising on either side of frosty water, the eastern slopes a prelude to glacier-covered peaks and valleys while the western reaches of land were blanketed by velvet evergreen forests.

There were ancient stretches of spruce, hemlock, and cedar; streams pouring down to the ocean from near-constant precipitation; fresh water flowing from the sky and into the vast and winding ocean channels of the Tongass National Forest.

Occasionally the dense evergreens or cold ocean would be dotted with evidence of humanity—a light on a watchtower, a buoy bobbling near a dock. The coastline was jagged and sweeping, over eleven thousand miles of shore in just this section of the Inside Passage.

Tenzin headed toward a cluster of lights, dipping down to survey a village consisting of a dozen shops running along a street that led down to a dock lined by fishing boats.

"Another human town," Ben said.

"Did Katya and Jennie get ahold of all the vampire compounds in the area?"

"Most of them." He glanced at the forest beyond the town, feeling eyes that probably weren't there. "Do you believe in Bigfoot?"

"Yes." Tenzin shrugged. "Why not?"

"What do you mean, why not?"

"I've been alive for five thousand years, and I am still surprised by this planet and its secrets. Why wouldn't a large human-type creature exist in the forest?"

He shook his head. "I will never be able to predict what you're going to say."

"Good."

Ben felt a gust of wind rising off the water and he pushed it away, keeping a bubble of air around him and Tenzin like a cushion. They curved around the end of the bay in a large arc and headed up to rise over the cold hills and back to the main channel where they were looking for a boat.

A large boat.

An occupied boat, most likely a small cruise ship or a very large yacht. Less likely a tanker with containers.

"Do you think we're looking in the right place?" Ben asked.

Tenzin was silent for a long while. "I believe Brigid calculated that this was the most likely region for Paulson to be hiding."

"That wasn't an answer."

"I trust Brigid. Somewhat."

Ben narrowed his eyes. "I have a thought and I want to know if you're having the same thought, so can you just tell me what you really think?"

Tenzin glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Brigid thinks if she finds Paulson, she'll find Zasha. I don't know if she is correct."

It was the same idea Ben had been chewing in his mind. "You think they're somewhere else."

"I'm thinking that Zasha probably likes boats about as well as another earth vampire we know."

"If I never set foot in a boat again," Carwyn muttered, "I'll be happy. I'll celebrate that. Not a single thing could make me regret that."

"My, my." Brigid sidled up to him as he stood on the bow of their fishing vessel, which was trolling through the waters of the Frederick Sound. "I see someone isn't enjoying the fresh air."

"Fresh air? You mean freezing air."

"It can be both." She couldn't help but be amused. For a thousand-year-old European, her husband did love warm weather. "Let's go to Mexico when this is all over."

Carwyn's eyes lit up. "Warm mountain towns? Historic cities? Lucha Libre tournaments that go on for hours?"

"All of that." Brigid smiled.

"That's a brilliant idea." He put his arm around her shoulders. "And let's spend all the time on land. Nothing special about oceans anyway."

In the distance, just to prove her mate wrong, a massive orca breached the water, its rounded dorsal fin cutting through the night air as two other whales in the pod skimmed the surface before all three plunged into the black water.

"Nothin' special about oceans at all," Brigid said. "I'm sure we'll see somethin' like that in the mountains around San Miguel."

Carwyn blinked at the magnificent display. "Fine, boats aren't the worst mode of travel in the world—that remains the bicycle—but they are very close. In the bottom five unless there are whales."

"Not just boat slander but bicycles too? Jaysus." She tsked under her breath as her eyes narrowed in on a figure flying toward them. "No wonder the Danish vampire hates us."

Carwyn spotted the figure approaching from the sky. "Is that Tenzin?"

"No, it's Raven," Brigid said. "Her hair's tied back."

The wind vampire landed on the back deck of the ship with an uneven thunk, and Brigid and Carwyn walked around to greet her.

She perked up as soon as she met them. "Cool. I got the right boat. I ran into Tenzin flying north into the Stephens Passage. They spotted something in a bay that they think looked promising. I mean… suspicious." She shook her head. "You know what I mean."

"So we head north." Brigid nodded. "I'll tell the captain. Anythin' else you spotted?"

"Eh…" Raven shrugged. "I'm not an expert here."

Carwyn said, "You have good instincts. Did you notice something?"

"The lack of something," Raven said. "I mean, I know it's winter, but life goes on, right? We're not that far from Juneau, and I think boat traffic is down from what it normally is this time of year. Which again, it's winter, so I might be wrong, but it seems low."

Brigid looked up at Carwyn. "Maybe Paulson put out the word that other boats weren't welcome."

"Or maybe something is happening to boats that normally travel in that area," he said. "There are residents who live along there, in areas that are probably mainly accessible by boat this time of year."

"You think there are more attacks we haven't found yet?" Raven asked. "More than the ones Katya blamed on Oleg?"

"You mean the ones Oleg blamed on Katya?" Brigid nodded. "We might never know who all Zasha and their people killed. But if there's less boat traffic than usual for this time of year, we have to at least consider that Paulson and Zasha are behind it."

Tenzin looked around the narrow fjord they were flying over. "Maybe we should sell the house in Shanghai and buy a place here."

"It's freezing cold in winter."

"And it's burning hot in Shanghai all summer."

"The only time the weather is nice here are the summer months when there's something like twenty hours of sunlight."

Her excitement did not wane. Ben was thinking like a human. "I'm just saying we should consider it."

"Or," Ben offered, "maybe Paulson has the right idea and we should all be living on boats."

She glanced at him. "Let's not be ridiculous."

"Think about it, Tiny. A ship with a huge deck. Privacy on the water. We could get a converted barge with a huge, light-safe hold."

She smiled. "You're suggesting this? You?"

"I'm just saying we're going to need a new base after…" He blinked. "I mean, we lost New York. Maybe it's a sign that we need to go somewhere new. I'm not saying I want to live on a freighter, but a nice luxurious river barge in Paris or Copenhagen? That's hardly like living on a boat at all. And you keep saying that things in Paris need to be shaken up. Maybe what they really need is a vampire coup, and we both know that's practically a guarantee when you come to?—"

"This is an intriguing train of thought." Her voice was soft. "But why don't we talk about it after we lose the vampire who's been following us for the past few minutes?"

Ben didn't turn to look. "Raven?"

"No. A male. He's been following us since we first started flying up this inlet."

She started to turn to face the enemy, but Ben snapped at her.

"Head forward!"

"Why? I'll simply kill him now. His amnis is much weaker than ours, and we don't want him reporting our presence to Paulson."

"How do you know he belongs to Paulson?"

"Because he's not one of Katya's people or he wouldn't be following at this distance."

"Fair enough, but don't kill him."

"Yet?"

Ben sighed a little bit. "Let him tail us and see how he reacts. If he keeps on our tail, that means we're probably on the right track."

Tenzin considered it and decided it wasn't the worst idea in the world. "I think we're exploring the right inlet. The water looks very deep, and there are no settlements on the coastline."

"Exactly," Ben said. "Plus this isn't a strait, according to Raven, but a bay. That means there won't be any random passing ships and the mouth of the inlet is easily watched."

A sharp, unexpected gust cut through Ben's amnis and sent a shot of ice-cold, damp air down Tenzin's back. "Plus this fjord is sheltered from the weather."

"Yes."

She rose over him, scanning the distant coastline, which was shadowed by the clouds blocking the moon. They passed over the first of a series of small islands in the center of the bay, and as they crested the rising hill at the center of the island, a cluster of lights appeared in the distance.

"There," Ben said. "Do you see it?"

"Yes."

As they approached, the cluster of lights took on a shape more akin to a pyramid, and as they got even closer, Tenzin saw that the triangular shape she'd been watching stretched back and back, revealing that it wasn't at triangle at all but a light-dotted vessel painted white on the top with a dark blue or black hull jutting proudly from the water.

Two rows of portholes lined the lower deck of the ship, and the faint sound of music could be heard coming from the ocean liner.

"And what do we do about our friend?" Ben asked.

"Are we sure this is Paulson's boat?"

"Who else is keeping a cruise ship in Alaska in the middle of winter?"

"Let's get closer and take a look," Tenzin said. "I don't want any extra humans or vampires in the middle of this. It will irritate Katya if we kill innocent humans."

"So what does that mean for our flying friend back there?"

She smiled a little bit. "It's time for him to get a new hobby."

Tenzin reached for the hilt of the Mongolian saber at her waist and flipped her feet over her head, walking herself backward and upside down, flying in the face of the man who'd been pursing them at a "safe distance."

The vampire gave a short gasp and immediately drew a blade of his own, a curved katana popular in Asia for those with little experience in air combat and even less imagination.

Not as worthy an opponent as she'd hoped. "Pity."

"Tenzin!" Ben's hissed warning alerted her a moment later to the second vampire following them.

It was a woman, her pale white hair cropped in a pixie cut, who pulled another sword from her hip, this one a much more imaginative hook sword.

Tenzin's heart raced at the challenge. "Much better."

A channel of wind gusted from her mate's amnis, curving in a river of air around Tenzin's body to re-form in front of her, blasting the first vampire off course.

The man tumbled backward and down toward the ocean, Ben following him to the water while Tenzin held up her hand and blasted a column of air toward the woman with the hook sword.

The wind vampire was clever, darting to the side and sending a wall of ice-laden air back toward Tenzin.

She twisted to the side, breaking the wall with her shoulder and flipping right side up to meet the thrusting hook sword aimed for her neck.

The vampire was fast even if her amnis wasn't as strong as Tenzin's. She twisted in the air, flipping over Tenzin's head and trying to pull the saber from her grip.

The clash of steel made Tenzin's fangs ache for blood.

The white-haired vampire bared her teeth, her hook sword locked on the tip of Tenzin's saber until Tenzin pulled back, pushing the air away from her body and hurtling her opponent through the air.

The vampire flipped head over heels until she righted herself and speared through the icy air back to Tenzin, her sword tucked against her thigh.

Tenzin had to admire her ferocity. The woman hadn't said a word; she was wholly focused on killing her.

She rounded on Tenzin, flipping in the air and spinning around to whip the hook sword with its twin, extending the reach of the lethal blades.

Tenzin felt the cut on her cheek before she could pull her face back.

She laughed at the woman's gall, only to flip her own blade upside down and force the tip of her saber into the sharpened crescent guard that had sliced her cheek. She felt the tension through her arm when the blades locked, and Tenzin tugged hard, at the same time pushing back with her element.

The vampire gave a hard grunt at the punch of air to her gut and faltered, her grip loosening enough that the hook swords spun away from her, flipping through the air and spinning into the water below.

The vampire watched her weapons fall with wide eyes, then looked up and tried to retreat.

Too late. A whorl of air formed in midair, wrapping around the woman and pulling ice from the heavy clouds overhead, crystals that sliced her pale skin, spraying bloody mist into the wind. The small tornado wrapped around the blond vampire, who struggled against the press of her element turned against her.

"Henri Paulson," Tenzin said to the captive vampire.

The woman's eyes flew open; she looked at Tenzin, then at the cruise ship floating low at the back of the fjord. Her pale eyes turned back to Tenzin, and she bared her fangs.

Tenzin smiled. "That's all the answer I needed." She swung out, cutting through the torrent of air and slicing the vampire's head from her body.

The snow-white head dropped into the evergreen forest below, disappearing into the darkness, and a moment later, Tenzin released the body from its tornado cage, the limbs splaying out in the wind as the vampire's remains dropped to the forest floor where they landed with a soft thud.

Ben reached her only moments later.

"She cut you." He bared his fangs, growling low in his throat as he reached his hand out to grip her neck. He pulled her cheek to his mouth and licked up the small wound, healing it with his own blood.

She smelled a hint of blood somewhere on his body, but he was not visibly damaged. "Where's our other friend?"

"In two pieces at the bottom of the ocean," Ben said. "What happens when you cut a vampire in half?"

Tenzin frowned. "Not at his neck?"

"No." Ben floated a short distance away and pointed to his belly. "Kind of right at the waist."

"You have far more force in your blade strike than I do."

"He irritated me, and he was definitely trying to kill me."

Tenzin shrugged. "I don't actually know if you killed him. If he can find the other half of his body in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, he might manage to put himself back together. But I imagine he's probably orca food."

"Sorry." Ben frowned. "I just realized we probably should have kept one of them alive to question."

"No worries," Tenzin said. "I know exactly where Henri Paulson is."