Chapter Thirty-Four

Carwyn leaped from the deck of the cruiser to the hull of the Nautilus, punching his fist through the porthole and gripping the twisted metal as he heard the deck above him erupt in chaos.

"Pirates!"

"Vampires!"

"—being boarded."

"This wasn't supposed to happen! Henri said this wasn't?—"

"Shut up and find a weapon."

"—our kind. It's our kind."

Beneath him, Carwyn heard the whoosh of grappling hooks whizzing by his head. One hooked on to the edge of the deck, and the rope was within reach. He grabbed for it, yanking down to make sure it was anchored before he swung his weight onto the rope and hauled himself up, the cuts on his arm healing as he moved.

He swung his leg onto the deck and immediately crouched in the darkness, but Jennie's people were already on board, dropped by air vampires who'd been patrolling overhead or climbing over railings from vessels that had come alongside the Nautilus.

Brigid crawled up the grappling line behind him. "Really?" She picked up his arm and glared at the healing cuts. "You're being careless."

He wasn't being careless—he was angry and pumped with amnis. It didn't matter that he was away from his element. His mate's blood was churning in his veins, and his body was primed for violence. What he didn't have in elemental strength, he'd make up in brute force.

The Almighty hadn't made him a giant for nothing.

"Let's go," he growled.

They moved quickly along the deck, Brigid with her gun drawn and Carwyn with the long bowie knife he preferred to use when he was hunting vampires.

The first immortal they encountered was armed even though he was wearing a tuxedo. Carwyn could smell human blood on his clothes, and his fangs were bared. He looked Norse, with brown hair and pale blue eyes set in a square face. He was as tall as Carwyn but not nearly as wide.

The vampire rushed Carwyn as soon as he saw him, his blade lifted, aiming for his neck.

They met like two stags colliding in the forest, Carwyn's righteous anger roaring as he drove the other vampire back, ignoring the icy, pelting rain the water vampire directed at his shoulders. It sliced through his clothes and cut his skin, but Carwyn was blind to the pain.

He knocked the water vampire to the deck, punching the blunt end of his hunting knife into the vampire's face. Bone cracked under his fist, but Carwyn didn't have time to relish in the man's injury. There could be over one hundred enemies on board this ship, and he needed to move fast.

The vampire under him wasn't rattled. He hacked at Carwyn's thigh with a short sword, flipping it to plunge the tip into his knee, but Brigid was backing her mate, and she fired at the man's hand, blasting the sword from it and making him scream.

Carwyn gripped the vampire's hair in his fist, yanked up, and sliced the back of his attacker's neck in one quick movement.

The vampire stilled, his amnis going dead, and his body thunked to the deck.

"Let's go!" Brigid yelled.

Carwyn could already hear more footsteps approaching.

Vampires were silent predators, but on the deck of the Nautilus with no humans to hide from, Carwyn was cast into a melee.

Pink glowing bracelets marked Jennie's people, so Carwyn aimed his fury at the dark figures without glow sticks, most of whom were wearing formalwear.

Apparently they'd interrupted an event.

A female vampire wearing a thick pearl necklace drew a sharp jian and braced for Carwyn's blade, but Brigid didn't waste time with an elegant fight. She raised her 9mm and fired directly into the vampire's neck, quickly shooting her two more times in each shoulder and driving her to the slippery wooden boards, which were starting to run with blood.

"Go!" Brigid waved him toward another vampire as she walked to the fallen woman in the pearls. His mate picked up the woman's head, sliced her neck with a silver knife, and let her body drop.

Just then he heard a rage-filled scream, and a column of water wrapped around Brigid's ankle, yanking her from the vampire in pearls and hurtling her toward the edge of the boat.

"No!" Carwyn ran to grab her hand, but whatever water vampire had Brigid in its watery grip was too fast.

Her eyes met Carwyn's and went wide a second before she went over the deck.

Bodies and parts of bodies were strewn across the bloody deck—most of them wearing formal clothes—when Ben landed. He looked for anyone familiar and immediately saw Carwyn twisting the neck of a vampire in a black dinner jacket. The body fell with a thud to the deck of the Nautilus as Carwyn spotted him.

"Benjamin!" Carwyn pointed to the port side of the vessel. "Brigid is in the water, and I'm no use to her there!"

"Fuck." He lifted from the deck and flew down to the surface, careful not to get too close to the waterline where waves were churning with elemental energy and he was a prime target for a water vampire.

"Brigid!" he shouted into the darkness and the wind.

If a water vampire had her in its grip, she could be trapped below the surface and completely defenseless.

Many of Paulson's vampires were already overboard, battling with Jennie's people, who were fighting from boats or swimming in the darkness. He could see faint pink glow sticks beneath the surface as water vampires did battle undersea.

He saw an arm waving on the surface and recognized Brigid's pale face before the water pulled her under again.

Vampires couldn't drown, but putting a fire vampire underwater was a good way to neutralize her.

Ben saw Brigid bob to the surface again and speared down, grabbing her arm and yanking her from the deep even as the water tried to pull her back.

He forced a column of wind toward the surface, fighting back the waves as he scooped Brigid up and pulled her into his arms.

"Hey." He grinned. "So how are you?"

"Busy." She glanced over her shoulder. "Did ya see Carwyn?"

"On deck and cutting a swath through Paulson's vampires."

"We surprised them. Has Tenzin found Zasha?"

How did he know she was going to ask? "Maybe. There's a wooden house on the island in the middle of the bay. There was something about the roof that Tenzin recognized. She said it has to be Zasha's."

"Take me there." She glanced over his shoulder. "Then go back to help Carwyn. They haven't even made it inside that thing."

"If you think I'm going to let you and Tenzin take on Zasha by yourself?—"

"Ben!" Her voice was desperate. "I need you to back up Carwyn. Leave Zasha to me and Tenzin. There are humans on board that boat."

He wanted to snarl, but he knew she'd argue with him for eternity. He flew Brigid toward the island. "I'll check on Carwyn, but he's going to tell you the same thing I am. The vampires on that boat are pampered socialites who hunt humans because it makes them feel tough."

"Yes, and those humans need to be saved."

"Zasha isn't pampered! You're going to need our help."

"We can do this." Brigid squeezed his arm. "I'm not bein' proud, Benjamin. Fire against fire. Let me and Tenzin work."

He dropped her off on the shore of the island near the jut of land where Tenzin had spotted the old Russian-style house. "I'll get Carwyn and come back."

"Ben!"

He flew away before she could argue with him.

Ben had no illusions about the vampires of the Nautilus, and neither did Katya's people. He had every reason to think Jennie and her crew could handle them and no reason at all to underestimate Zasha Sokholov.

He'd help Carwyn on the Nautilus. Then both of them would be back.

Tenzin spotted Brigid walking through the forest and chirped a high, trilling note that caught the fire vampire's attention. She looked up toward the birdcall and saw Tenzin in the trees.

Brigid nodded and walked toward Tenzin, weaving through the needle-strewn forest.

Ferns brushed along Brigid's legs as she walked, and her footsteps sounded like a crashing animal to Tenzin's keen ears.

The house was sitting on a hill, built of rough-hewn cedar timbers and perched to look over the water. A sheer rock wall rose behind it, and a wooden deck ran along the second story. Narrow, wood-shuttered windows were cut into the face of the house, and a steep-pitched roof was clear of snow, but moss grew on the wooden shingles.

The moment Tenzin saw it, she knew it was Zasha's refuge. The house was a mirror image of the one in Siberia where Zasha and her mate had been sheltered so many years before, even down the faint stench of decaying bodies that drifted in the air. That same stench should be enough to cover their approach.

Tenzin had finally found the fire vampire's home.

It was the perfect location for them. Rainforest to keep their element under control. The lush greenery around the house showed evidence of blackened scarring, but the forest was too wet for any fire to find purchase, especially in the winter.

Brigid stood at the base of the cedar tree and looked up. "What are we doing?" she whispered.

Ugh. How inconvenient to be tethered to the ground. Tenzin tried to remember what it felt like to be bound with gravity, but she couldn't quite fathom it anymore.

Not the little fire vampire's fault. She swooped down, picked up Brigid under the arms, and plopped her on a branch in the cedar tree.

"That's Zasha's house." She nodded at the old izba peeking through the trees.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck." Brigid was hugging the trunk of the cedar. "Are you sure?"

Tenzin frowned. "What are you doing?"

The woman glanced down and clutched the tree trunk harder. "Tenzin, why?—?"

"Even if you fell, you'd survive." Tenzin bounced on the branch a little. "And this tree is sturdy."

"Right." She gritted her teeth, and her fangs pierced her lip. "I know that. Really I do. But it would hurt. A lot. And you said you found Zasha's house."

"If you open your eyes, you'll see it." Tenzin peered through the branches to keep an eye on the windows. "I don't see any movement, so I don't know if Zasha is there. I find it hard to imagine they don't know the Nautilus is being attacked."

"Right." Brigid nodded, but she didn't let go of the tree. "Uh… they prob'ly don't care. Zasha doesn't have any loyalty to Paulson or those vampires. They were just useful idiots to them."

"Yes." The little fire vampire really was quite bright. "But on the chance that anyone is watching, they're going to see the top of this tree shaking, and it's obviously not from the wind, so could you calm down please?"

"Okay." Brigid took a calming breath. "Okay. Right. Right."

Tenzin rolled her eyes. "Oleg was right; you do still think like a human."

"You know, I consider that a feature, not a bug."

"I don't know what that means. Why would you compare yourself to a bug?" Tenzin wrinkled her nose. "Why Zasha became fascinated with you is a mystery to me."

"Me too." Brigid cautiously sat up straight, still keeping a hand on the trunk of the cedar. "Why don't we go knock on the door and ask?"

Tenzin pursed her lips. "That's an idea."

"I was jokin'."

"Maybe, but it's a quick way to get an answer." Tenzin floated away from the cedar tree and held her hand out. "And I think we've waited long enough. Don't you?"

Brigid's eyes went wide. "You're serious."

Tenzin nodded. "They won't kill me. They know they can't try to kill me without me killing them. So I'm going to go knock on the door and say hello."

"But you said that you didn't care about your promise anymore. That your children wouldn't care if you broke your word."

"I did." Tenzin nodded. "But Zasha doesn't know that."

Carwyn growled at Ben when the wind vampire finally pulled him away from the fighting. "They did what?"

"Tenzin found Zasha's house," Ben said. "It's on the island we passed in the middle of the bay. I dropped Brigid on the beach."

"Why would you bloody do that?" Carwyn roared.

"Because she told me to!" Ben snarled and roared back. "Do you want me to take you to her or not?"

"Fuck!" Carwyn spun and slammed his fist into the face of an elegantly coiffed vampire who was barreling toward them with a harpoon spear in her hand.

The female vampire crashed to the deck, then popped up like she was made of rubber, only to be lassoed around the neck by Jennie, who pulled the vampire across the deck kicking and screaming before Jennie bent down, pulled the harpoon spear from the sequined vampire's hand, and plunged it into her neck, stilling her kicking feet.

"Have you seen Paulson?" Jennie wiped away the spray of blood across her cheek before the persistent flow of rain washed it away. "My people have the decks nearly cleared, but there's no sign of that bastard."

"Have you found any living humans?" Ben shouted the question in the roaring wind. He held up a hand and the wind stilled.

Carwyn was focused on finding Brigid. "Ben, you need to take me to that island."

Jennie shook her head. "We haven't found the humans. We're clearing the decks; then we'll go below."

"They could be killing them right now!" Ben shouted. "We need to get?—"

He was cut off by an explosion off the port side.

"Fuck!" Jennie ran to the railing, and her eyes went wide when she saw one of Katya's boats go up in flames. "What the hell happened?"

Ben searched through the darkness and the smoke and saw a flash of bright red hair. "Zasha?"

Carwyn grabbed the front of Ben's shirt and lifted him in the air. "You fly me to that boat. Right the hell now."