As the darkness of the parking lot covered me, I let out a sigh of relief. My shoes made only the slightest of sounds on the smooth concrete as I quickly made my way back to the Jeep.
One swift look around showed me that Scout was missing. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. At some point we were going to have to say goodbye to him. I doubted that I would be able to take him on any plane, no matter how I cajoled them into seeing what a well behaved Nevermore he was.
I opened the door of the Jeep and slid into the driver’s seat. “Okay Bastion. We’ve got the vial, let’s get out of here.” I turned in the seat and let out a low moan. It was all I had left to give.
Sebastian was gone.
6
At first I just sat and stared at the empty space where he should have been. How had he gotten out? The Nevermores didn’t have the motor skills to open things. My heart caught in my throat. It had to be the trial cure that Donavan had given him. It really was working and he was getting some of his human abilities back.
Then I got out of the Jeep and looked around. The parking lot was empty. I let out a low whistle hoping Scout would hear and come back to me. Not this time.
Shit.
There hadn’t been any sign of Nevermores out the south side where I’d come in from, so maybe they’d headed up the streets, back into town. But that wouldn’t make any sense. I wracked my brain. Where the hell would they go? And why?
I snapped my fingers and threw the flashlight into the Jeep. The waterfront. Sebastian had been fascinated by the waterfront the entire time we’d been confined in Donavan’s compound.
Slipping back into the streets, one ear listening for the sound of Nevermores, I ran as fast as I could across Front Street then looked down over the edge of the rise that overlooked the Georgia Strait. The ground sloped down in a steep angle and I found myself on my butt, surfing the brown grass all the way to the bottom where a walkway took over. The walkways spread all around the harbour, through a lagoon and out to the far North side of the waterfront. When Sebastian and I first came to the island to hunt for real estate we walked the whole loop during a break from viewing houses. Then it had taken nearly 45 minutes to walk from one end of the walkway to the other. I took a deep breath and the salty tang of the ocean filled my lungs, the crisp air reviving my senses.
I could feel the time ticking away inside my head. I had to find Sebastian and find him fast. Looking first one way, then the other I decided on heading North. There was more ground to cover that way, but there was also easy access to the water. I jogged down the wide walkway. The pressed concrete was smooth and the hand railings looked as if they were freshly painted, a brilliant clean white. I kept my eyes peeled for anything that would give me a hint of where Sebastian might have gone.
After a few minutes my anxiety began to grow. What if I was wrong? What if he hadn’t come down here?
I didn’t have the time to search the whole downtown core for him. We had to get out of here. Tears began to burn at the back of my eyes and my throat tightened. I didn’t want to think about the conclusion I was coming to.
If I couldn’t find him in the next few minutes, I would have to turn around and leave, go on without him.
The sudden, sharp, pain in my chest wasn’t from the exertion of jogging; it was from my heart trying to break. I ran up a slight rise in the walkway and looked down over the lagoon. It was fenced in by cement barriers that rose five or six feet in the air over the water and a beautiful white bridge that arched over where the lagoon met the ocean.
The sound of splashing and a squeal of fear moved me towards the beach access for the lagoon. For some reason my mind tried to come up with the name of the place. It was a strange one, a real mouth full. Swinging longa, or something like that. Distantly, I recognized that my mind was scattering in all directions, that I was tired, hungry and afraid. All of which was not helping my mental process.
I rounded a corner and there on the lagoon’s beach was Scout, having a complete and utter meltdown, his hands flapping and eyes wild as he jumped all over the place, unable to make himself go in the water.
Sebastian was in the lagoon, up to his neck and still walking out deeper.
I ran along the paved boardwalk and skidded down the stairs to the sandy beach and into the water.
It wasn’t too cold, but to be fair, I barely noticed it as Vincent’s words echoed in my head.
“Genistin increases the calcium content in bones and prevents more bone mass loss. This also increases the bodies overall mass, making them heavier and less buoyant.”
Sebastian was almost up over his mouth.
“Bastian! Stop!” I yelled, as I floundered through the first few feet of water to the point where I could start to swim out to him. My clothes dragged at me and I struggled to keep my own head above water. I reached him as his nose dipped and he snorted in some salt water.
I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled a handful of hair, yanking him back to shore. He grunted but didn’t fight me; he didn’t have too. His body was solid and he only stumbled back far enough to literally give him some breathing room.
I kicked hard, pulling him off balance, which spun him to face the shoreline.
“Come on! Help me Bastian,” I snapped, getting a mouthful of salt water.
“I’m no good Mara; I don't think I can control the monster in me,” he said, his words, the fact that he was speaking in full sentences, jarring me. Treading water, I turned to face him and really looked at him.
His skin was clear, the yellow tones gone; his eyes were human in shape, though they had retained the golden irises. More than that though, I could see Sebastian in his eyes, with no hint of the Nevermore that had raged through his system.
I reached for him and he stood still, let me touch his face. “You’re back,” I whispered, the waves rippling around us. A piece of sea weed floated by and Sebastian shook his head.
“I don’t know that I am.”
From the beach Scout let out a squeal. Treading water, I slowly spun to see a group of Nevermores approaching the beach. This day was not improving.
The Nevermores circled Scout who cringed and tried to scuttle away from them. A single blow from one of the males and Scout was on the ground, whimpering and put in his place.
Still treading water, my mind raced to solve this new set of problems. I couldn’t come up with anything. I could see that we were safe, but only as long as we were in the water. And once the bombs sunk the downtown core, we were in serious trouble. I shuddered, the water rippling out around me.
“You aren’t safe,” Sebastian said.
“Neither are you. You don’t smell right to them anymore. Scout would have attacked you if I hadn’t stopped him,” I said over my shoulder.
“I can’t protect you from them anymore. You shouldn’t have tried to bring me back.”
A ringing went off in my ears, the world around me flickering and swaying, and I thought for a brief moment that the explosions had started—but it was just his words that made me feel as if a piece of me was dying.
He kept talking, ignoring the tears that started to trickle down my face. “At least as one of them, I could keep you safe, could keep the baby safe. Now, I can’t do that. I have nothing to offer you. I’m a liability, sick and you would be better off . . . “
“But the sickness will pass, Bastian,” I said, believing the words and hoping I could make him believe them too.
With the Nevermores in the backdrop, the sounds of the waves lapping at the shoreline and a lead weight in my heart, I understood that he didn’t want to live anymore. That this trek into the water wasn’t some misfire of the chemicals in his brain as he came back to me.
Sebastian was back and he didn’t want to be.
Tears streaked down my face, an uncontrollable fount of pain escaping me. “Please, I’ve fought so hard to have you with me. Please don’t leave me now.”
“I will always love you Mara.” He turned away from me and started his death walk into the depths of the lagoon.
I stared at his back and the pain slowly turned to anger, a burn that began in my belly and fired its way all through my body until it erupted out of my mouth.
“You selfish son of a bitch! You think that this was easy? You think that I had a good time watching you become one of them? You know what Bastian, grow the hell up. This is our life and I don’t care how bad it gets, how hard it gets, we both have to live it. Period.”
He froze in his tracks but didn’t turn to face me.
“That’s right, walk away, run away from all the fear and pain and sorrow that you are leaving to me and our child. You think that I’ll have it easier without you here? That’s just your excuse so you don’t feel bad about leaving me in the biggest lurch of my FREAKING LIFE!”
I started to swim to the edge of the lagoon; the manmade waterfalls were dried up now but still tiered in order to make the cement barriers look more aesthetically pleasing. I looked along the edge and sized up my route. It looked as though I could pull myself along the edge of the barriers, under the bridge and then continue on around the seawall, back to the spot where I’d slid down the grass. Hopefully, the Nevermores would have forgotten about me by then.
Hopefully by then I’d have forgotten about Sebastian’s betrayal, though I doubted it. I reached the first tier and something tugged at my shirt. I slowly turned to see Sebastian standing neck deep in the water, his eyes full of pain.
“I’ll come with you. For now.”
I nodded but didn’t say anything, still too angry to give him anything more than that.
The Nevermores ran to the edge of the lagoon and reached over the chain hand railing, howling at us, screaming their hunger. We were well out in the lagoon now where the water was deep and dark, but we clung to the edge, pulling ourselves along. A deep rumble in the distance slowed me for a brief second.
“We have to hurry,” I said, and re-doubled my efforts, the muscles in my upper body burning from the extended exertion. We reached the bridge and paused for a breath underneath it, the Nevermores above us growling and snarling. We were just out of reach and they were pissed. The water here was shallow, only a few inches deep. I took a breath and surveyed where we were in relation to where we needed to be.
“We’ll hug the seawall all the way back to the harbour. It parallels the walkway, but the Nevermores won’t be able to reach us.”
Sebastian nodded but said nothing.
One of the Nevermores made a lunge for us over the edge of the bridge as we stepped on to the cement breakers on the far side. He fell with a scream, hitting the hard ground with only a minor splash. It seemed to stun him, and he lay there for a moment.
Sebastian jumped at him, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and flung him out into the deep water of the lagoon. A single splash, a few bubbles and the Nevermore was gone. But it cost Sebastian precious energy as he swayed, leaning perilously close to the edge of that deep water himself. I grabbed his hand and pulled him with me.
We slogged through water that reached our knees, the Nevermores tracking us the whole way, the high sea wall separating us from them. It was like a three story circus. We were on the bottom level in the water, the Nevermores were on the walkway a good five feet above Sebastian’s head and then the boulevard I’d slid down was another level above the walkway. The trek, which had taken me a mere matter of minutes before, took much longer on the way back, but every step brought us closer to the Jeep, closer to escaping this place.
We reached the spot where I’d slid down to the boulevard, but the sea wall was even higher here, a good 4 or 5 feet above Sebastian’s head.
He didn’t offer any solutions, and I stood there staring at the seemingly insurmountable rock wall in front of me. I put my hand against the wall and curled my fingers around the stone, digging them into a groove that was barely perceptible.
We could climb the wall. It wasn’t too high, and there were spots that we could use as handholds. “How are your hands?” I asked.
Sebastian came up beside me. “You mean to climb this?”
I nodded. He flexed his fingers and gripped an edge. “I think I could manage. If there wasn’t a pack standing above our heads.”
I glanced up and the Nevermores stared down, their faces twisted with hunger, their eyes wide and greedy. Yes, that was going to be a problem. The ground below us shook as the explosion from another bomb rocked the harbour. I swayed on my feet, placing the palms of my hands on the wall for support. Barnacles pressed into my skin, their sharp shells digging in to the soft flesh. We were in trouble. I could see no way out of this.
A scuffle to the left, back the way we came caught my attention. Scout was making his way along the boulevard, his eyes searching for us. I gave a wave and he brightened; a lopsided grin stretching across his face as blood trickled down from a slice in his cheek, but otherwise he looked to be no worse the wear from his earlier scuffle.
I let out a low whistle and he crept forward, coming as close as he could without disturbing the rest of the pack, who crouched at the edge of the wall. They were all on the same level, the pack crouched right in front of us; Scout fifteen feet down the boulevard and peering at us with concern.
Sebastian touched my arm. “If Scout were to challenge the entire group, it would be enough to distract them. There is only one thing more important to a Nevermore than food.” He paused and glanced upwards at the milling group. “Loyalty to the pack.”
I closed my eyes, grief filling me. I knew what Sebastian was saying. There was a way out of here, but it would depend on Scout and his loyalty to me. And it would most likely cost him his life. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I lifted my eyes and smiled at him.
“You’ve been a good friend Scout. I need you to do one last thing for me,” I said, my voice catching on the tears that threatened.
He grunted, gave me a sharp nod and tapped his chest with his hand.
“I need you to start a fight; I need you to take the pack away from here so we can climb out. Can you do that?” I asked.