Wheeler pushed to his feet, his attention going to Snorkel-Guy, who was still fast high-stepping in the other direction. “Should we get him?”
Mac whistled loudly. “Turn around, Gus, or the head gets it.”
Just like that, Gus pivoted and came toward them, high-stepping the entire way.
“I’m sorry I wanted to meet them,” said Wheeler partially under his breath.
Bill sized him up. “Gus says you’re a dead wheel. Doesn’t look like you roll worth a shit though. You got a pulse, or are you like Count Dick-u-la?”
Ignoring him, Wheeler focused on the twins. “Something tells me you’re not down here to see the local nightlife.”
Car nodded. “We’re nae. Gus says Cody and the mermaid are in trouble.”
Wheeler snorted. “He’s mated now. So, if we’re counting him having ball and chain trouble, sure. Other than that, they’re fine. They’re on Gena’s boat. Have been since last night. I’m guessing he’s out cold from having a fuck-ton of sex.”
The twins glanced at each other and then Wheeler.
A sinking feeling came over him. “He’s not on the boat, is he?”
“Nae according to Gus,” said Mac. “Helmuth has them and time is of the essence.”
“Shit!” shouted Wheeler.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cody glared at Helmuth from within the containment tank as water pressed in around him. Bubbles temporarily masked his ability to see. Had he not been a shark-shifter, he had little doubt the saltwater would have burned his eyes. As it stood, it was just annoying.
But not as fucking annoying as being bound underwater as if he were Houdini.
Thick chains were secured to the back wall of the unit. The chains were hooked to shackles on his wrists, ankles, and to a collar around his neck.
His lungs burned with the need to take a breath as he remained there, chained, underwater in the tank. If he tried to shift forms into a shark, it would end poorly since his neck was bound as was the rest of him. But if he remained in human form much longer, he’d drown. Even as a shark-shifter, he had limitations when it came to being underwater. One of those was, he could hold his breath for a long time, but in the end, he did have to breathe air at the surface. That or shift forms fully.
He’d expelled a good deal of oxygen struggling when he’d first come to and found himself being lowered into the tank, so he was running on empty.
He hated the fact he’d been overpowered to start with. But Helmuth had brought too many men for Cody to take at once. His worry for his mate had also cost him precious reaction time. That, and he’d been sure he’d smelled a scent he shouldn’t have.
Kaiko.
But that couldn’t be. The man had been dead and gone for seventeen years.
None of that mattered now. All that mattered was Gena. Ernest had warned them. What Helmuth had planned for her was unthinkable, and there was no way in hell Cody was allowing it to happen.
Helmuth was standing on the other side of the glass with a smug look on his face. Cody wanted to rip the expression off along with the man’s face. That actually seemed too nice a punishment for what he wanted to do to the bastard.
When Helmuth winked, Cody thrashed more, the need to slaughter the male breathing new life into the wereshark.
All of Cody’s movements and obvious fury only served to make Helmuth laugh more.
Hate was such a mild word to describe what Cody felt for the man.
Helmuth stepped to one side, and horror filled Cody as he saw Gena’s limp form being carried in by a man he’d not seen in seventeen years.
A man he’d thought was dead and gone.
Kaiko Kahale.
The scent that Cody had been sure he’s caught a second before he’d been overrun had really been the man’s.
Where had he been all these years?
And why in the fuck was he helping Helmuth?
Cody yanked against the restraints, a rage the likes of which he’d never felt before growing in him.
Helmuth motioned for Kaiko to bring Gena’s motionless form closer.
Kaiko did, and Cody went nuts, thrashing and expending more of his oxygen reserve.
Helmuth tipped his head back and laughed as he reached out and stroked Gena’s cheek. When he bent and licked the same spot on Gena’s cheek, Cody’s brain fogged with a red haze, and he saw nothing more for a second as his inner beast surged upward in him.
Cody assumed that would be his end.
That the second the shark took the lead, forcing a full shift, it would be strangled from the collar.
As his body began to change shape, it did so at a rate of speed he’d never experienced before. The force of it snapped the collar and the shackles from his body, leaving them sinking to the bottom of the tank.
The shark didn’t demand a full change, it actually permitted Cody to do a controlled semi-shift. It gifted him the ability to breathe underwater while still having arms and legs.
He charged the glass and struck it with a force that reverberated through the ship. A stress fracture appeared on the glass, and Helmuth’s smug expression began to falter. Real worry touched the man’s brow as he shouted something at Kaiko.
The man Cody had once thought of as a friend proceeded to carry Gena to a tank that was across the way, still in sight of Cody’s holding container. Kaiko climbed a metal staircase with Gena in his arms and then tossed her limp form into the smaller tank, filled to the brim with water.
His next action sent a shiver of shock through Cody.
Kaiko pulled a heavy metal lid down and fastened it over, sealing Gena in with no space to catch her breath if she managed to somehow wake.
Helmuth laughed.
Cody moved to the back of his tank and set his sights on the fractured portion of the glass. He then went at it, like a torpedo. He didn’t care if the action left him hurt or worse. All he cared about was getting to Gena.
As he made impact with the glass, it gave way and burst outward, sending Cody and the contents of the tank rushing forward. The force of the water pushing out caused Cody to veer off course, but it also swept Helmuth’s feet out from under him.
Cody’s hands shifted more, claws emerging as they did. Left between forms, Cody came up, breaking the surface of the water that filled the open area, leaving the water around two meters high.
Darting under the waterline once more, Cody spotted Helmuth scrambling to get to the shut exit door. At that moment Cody knew if he went after the man, he’d not only catch him, but he’d kill him, finally ending the man for good.
He’d spent years hell-bent on getting revenge and ending the bastard. Here was his chance. The perfect opportunity had presented itself.
But revenge was the furthest thing from Cody’s mind.
Saving Gena was all he cared about.
He swam for the tank she was in.
A second before he was to the metal stairs that led to the top of the tank, something sliced through the water, striking him with the force of a freight train.
The impact sent Cody slamming into the metal floor.
He stared up at the partially shifted form of a man he’d thought of as a friend, and his brain shut off, striking Kaiko in the face. The two locked in battle, using the water to their advantage.
Cody slammed Kaiko’s head into the floor, and the man twisted fast, snapping out with a mouth full of sharp teeth. He tore into Cody’s upper arm, taking flesh as he did.
Blood filled the water around them, which was already murky from everything in the open area. Debris floated by, as did glass from the broken containment tank.
Cody rammed into Kaiko and forced them to the surface. They broke through the water, snarling as they did. The men traded blows, each giving as good as he got. During it all, Cody realized Kaiko and he were evenly matched, both having clearly been experimented on by Helmuth and his goons. Whatever they were, it was more than they’d gone into the testing as, that much was clear.
&n
bsp; Movement out of the corner of his eye caught Cody’s attention, pulling it from Kaiko momentarily as he looked over to see Gena coming to within her holding tank. She roused and then jerked, thrashing for a second before twisting in the water, her long dark hair going up and around her. In an instant, he was taken back mentally to when she’d been a child, and he’d saved her.
Her wide brown eyes held the same curiosity they had all those years ago before they widened.
Something struck Cody in the back of the head, knocking him under the waterline once more. He slammed his head back, cracking it hard against what he could only guess was Kaiko’s head. Friend or not, he’d kill the man to get to Gena.
Protecting his mate was all that mattered.
Old friendships be damned.
He elbowed Kaiko in the ribs and spun in the water. He delivered a nasty strike with the pad of his hand to the man’s chin, snapping Kaiko’s head back. All that seemed to do was piss the other alpha male off more.
Kaiko swiped a clawed hand at Cody, just missing Cody’s neck.
None of that mattered.
All Cody could think of was Gena and how much air she had left before she’d drown. Panic welled in him, making him slip up in his fight against Kaiko. The opening left Kaiko ramming his clawed hand through Cody’s shoulder. The pain was immense, but he pushed through it, drawing on his strength and resolve to launch himself at Kaiko once more.
He struck the shifter and swam with him at a wall of piping. Cody didn’t stop. He increased his speed and body-slammed Kaiko into a large pipe, making it burst. A rush of water came bursting free from it.
Cody drove his claws through Kaiko’s lower side.
The man’s eyes lit with fury as he lifted both hands above his head, just out of the water and brought them down on Cody’s back.
The act knocked Cody under the line of water once more.
From the commotion of the fight, the newly broken pipe, and everything else, the water was murky and rushing in a way that left both men struggling to maintain their positions.
Cody looked back to see Gena pushing at the glass of the tank she was in, having no success getting free.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It felt like minutes, but that couldn’t be. It had to only be seconds because she didn’t look to be running out of air, and her concern seemed to be for him as she stared over at him.
Behind you!
Her voice filled his head, and he turned just in time to see Helmuth, in partially shifted form, coming at him through the water. The man looked like a mix of a bat and a reptile. Talons that were far longer than Cody’s came from Helmuth’s fingertips.
The bastard nearly took Cody’s head off. Had Gena not warned him, and he not spun when he did, Cody had little doubt that Helmuth would have been successful in beheading him.
Kaiko rushed Cody from below under the water and hit him in the side, tackling him and dragging him under all the way.
Giving in, Cody shifted more, allowing his head to nearly fully form into the shark. He pushed upward and zeroed in on Kaiko’s long form. Opening his mouth, Cody took aim and breached the water. His massive jaws clamped down on Kaiko’s torso, and Cody thrashed his head back and forth.
Kaiko’s blood filled Cody’s mouth, driving the shark onward, causing him to bite down more. He could have bitten all the way through, cutting the man in half, but something deep down stopped him. He knew the damage he’d done to Kaiko was significant, possibly life-threatening, and that he’d no longer be a threat. Killing him wasn’t something Cody wanted to do if he didn’t have to.
Every instinct in him said there was more to the story than Kaiko being a traitor. And if there wasn’t, Kaiko would be alive to answer for what he’d done.
Cody released the shifter male and took human form quickly, thrusting Kaiko’s bloody, broken body from him. He came up and over the top of the waterline, searching for signs of Helmuth but finding none.
There wasn’t time to look more.
Gena needed him.
He swam fast in the direction of her holding tank, fully expecting to find that she’d drowned. What he found caused him to draw up short and stop going forward. She was there, in the tank, fully submerged, her eyes locked on him, her long hair all around her, appearing totally and completely fine and calm. She didn’t seem to be struggling to breathe in the least.
It took him a few seconds to snap out of his state of stunned stupor. He made it to the stairs near her tank and climbed them, emerging from the water as he did. The handle to the lid of her tank had been broken off, and he knew that had been Helmuth’s doing.
Bastard!
He dropped to his knees and tried to pry the lid open. It didn’t give. Blind panic gripped him as he thought of his mate dying. Of how he was so close to saving her only to lose her in the last minute.
No!
An explosion rocked the ship and echoed so loudly through the space that Cody’s sensitive hearing left him grabbing his head. He blinked and looked over to find the exit door was no more. In its spot was a giant hole. One that left a large amount of water rushing out of the room.
The most unexpected of people appeared in the opening.
Bill.
He was in a pair of swim trunks with an American flag on them, and he had a rocket launcher over one shoulder while he smoked a cigar with his free hand. He grinned. “Need a hand?”
The twins pushed through the opening next, running as quickly as they could through the rush of water that was flooding out of the area. The two alpha males looked to be struggling to stay upright from the current of it all, yet Bill stood perfectly still at the mouth of where the water was going, never wavering.
Cody twisted, let his hands shift forms, and then he drew one back and punched as hard as he could. His hand went right through the thick metal lid. He repeated the action with his other hand, and once it was through, he let out a roar as he tried to get the top off.
It gave some but not enough to come off.
Mac was the first man to him. He nodded to Cody and punched through the lid as well. “Fuck! That hurt, Aussie.”
Cody yanked again as did Mac.
This time, the lid gave and snapped open.
Mac flung it aside and Cody dove into the tank full of water. He was to Gena in seconds. She was there, looking at him, appearing unharmed and fine.
He grabbed her and pulled her to the surface.
When they were up, he twisted her around and cupped her face. He kissed her as if he’d never get to kiss her again, pouring every ounce of love he felt for the woman into the act.
She clung to him, and when the kiss broke, she lowered her head, and he held her to him in the water, his lips finding her forehead.
“I love you,” he said, causing her to stiffen and Mac to suck in a large breath. “I should have told you that already. The second I knew who you were to me. I thought…I thought I was going to lose you and never get to say the words.”
“Cody,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Don’t say anything. Just let me hold you a second more.”
“As touchin’ as this is,” offered Mac, his voice cutting through the moment. “Yer bleeding something fierce, Aussie.”
“Fuck later!” yelled Bill from the exit. “We’ve got a gargoyle to kill.”
Gena’s eyes widened.
“Come on, babe,” said Cody, easing Gena toward Mac, who was bent at the edge of the tank.
Mac extended his hand to Gena.
She glanced back at Cody.
He winked. “He’s good people, babes. I trust him.”
She put her hand in Mac’s, and he lifted her out of the holding tank with ease. Mac set her behind him and then turned, lifting a hand out for Cody.
“I’m fine,” said Cody, making a move to hoist himself out of the tank. Just then, his body decided to let him know how banged up he really was. Pain seemed to radiate from everywhere at once. He winced.
> Mac grunted, bent more, and yanked Cody out without waiting for approval. Once they were standing, Mac gave him a good once-over. “Tell me the other guy looks worse.”
As the words left the Scotsman’s mouth, Kaiko’s body floated by. He was still partially shifted, face down, limp, with a massive bite wound nearly cutting him in half. Seeing a man he’d thought of as a brother like that, knowing he was the reason for it, left Cody tearing up slightly.
“Gus says the whale ain’t dead,” said Bill from the doorway. “Grab him, and let’s get this shit show moving. I’m hungry.”
Kaiko wasn’t dead?
Car was nearly to the stairs, and he reached out quickly, grabbing Kaiko and turning him over. As the man looked down, he stiffened. “That’s…no. We thought he was dead. He was being held by these fucks all along?”
“No,” said Cody, his jaw tightening. “He wasn’t being held. He was fucking working with them.”
Gena pressed in close to him, shivering slightly. “No. I don’t think he was.”
“I watched him carrying you and then I saw him toss you in that tank and seal it shut,” said Cody, anger filling him. “He turned on his own people. His brothers.”
“Cody,” said Gena, running her hands over his chest. “Stop. I don’t think he turned on you willingly.”
“What are you saying?” asked Cody.
Bill burped loudly. “She’s saying the whale got his mind fucked with. He don’t know which way is up. Grab him and let’s get a move on it. This ship gives me the willies.”
Car lifted Kaiko and stared up at Cody and the others. His expression was grim. He was thinking the same thing Cody was. Kaiko probably wouldn’t survive his wounds.
They were almost to Bill when his eyes widened and he stepped to the side fast. “Get down!”
Cody shielded Gena with his body as Mac bent. Car did his best to get down but since he was carrying Kaiko’s limp body it was easier said than done.
There was a massive roaring noise and Helmuth, still in gargoyle form, came flying past them, but it didn’t look to be his own doing.
“What the ever-loving fuck?” Mac came up fast, staring at Helmuth’s shifted form. “That is the ugliest fucking thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been looking at Car all my life.”
Wrecked Intel (Immortal Outcasts®): An Immortal Ops® World Novel Page 25