EUAN: Outback Shifters #3

by Chant, Zoe

  Delilah could see figures struggling in the water too, in amongst all the debris – some of them were clearly alicorns, given the way they were shifting and then flapping their sodden wings, trying to fly away.

  Oh God, where are –

  “Here.” Euan’s strong arm powered them through the water toward one of the larger, sturdier pieces of yacht wreckage. “Stay here.”

  His hands went to her waist, lifting her out of the water and onto the floating debris. She managed to balance on it, clinging to the sides.

  Oh, it’s just like Titanic, Delilah thought vaguely. Except it was a pretty balmy early evening in Sydney, so hopefully Euan wouldn’t get too cold in the water.

  “I’m going to look for Hector, Rhys and Callan,” Euan told her as he tread water. “I won’t be long, and I hope I can stay in eyeshot of you –”

  “No need, Euan. I’m fine.”

  Delilah looked up, just in time to see Callan floating by, clinging to the giant mirrorball she’d seen hanging above the dance floor in the disco room.

  Which, she supposed, was something you didn’t see every day.

  “Callan!” Euan called out. “Where are the others?”

  “Up there,” Callan said, pointing to the sky. “Unfortunately not all of us can fly, I suppose.”

  Delilah looked up. Some of the alicorns had managed to take flight, and most of them were disappearing rapidly into the gray of the early evening sky. But in amongst them were –

  Oh, Delilah thought vaguely. Griffins.

  Of course, they’d told her back in the office that Hector and Rhys could turn into griffins. But seeing it live was quite another thing entirely.

  She blinked, watching as they swooped through the air, evidently looking for a place on the debris they might be able to land.

  “We have to get back to land,” Euan said urgently. “We have to somehow stop that thing, before it gets to the city –”

  “Given how fast it moves, I don’t know how likely that is.” Callan’s voice was grim. “And I really don’t like the fact I don’t know where it went.”

  A chill ran through Delilah’s gut. She’d thought finally seeing the creature was the most terrifying thing she could think of. But no: the most terrifying thing was definitely knowing the creature was out there, somewhere – maybe even right below them – and not having any idea of where.

  “Hector and Rhys might be able to carry two of us,” Callan pointed out. “And obviously it should be you and Delilah.”

  “No.” Euan shook his head. “I won’t let you stay here in the water with that thing God knows where. It should be you and Delilah who go back with Hector and Rhys.”

  Delilah felt a scream bubbling up inside her.

  No. No one stays here. We all go back, she wanted to yell at them, but she knew it wouldn’t exactly help the situation. The only thing she could do was stay calm, and hope that some other solution would somehow present itself –

  Delilah gasped, clutching at the sides of her floating debris as the water suddenly began to rock around them once more.

  Oh God, is it the creature? Has it come back?!

  Eyes wide, she stared around, searching for any sign of the rippling V in the water she’d seen when the creature had been swimming right for the yacht – and felt her mouth pop open in surprise.

  Oh. Oh my goodness.

  Below her, she saw Euan’s face crinkle into a confused frown.

  “Is that –” he began.

  “– the Manly Ferry?” she finished for him.

  Delilah stared as the massive green and gold passenger ship chugged its way through the water toward them. It was something she’d never really thought about – she almost never went out to Manly, so she’d never had much reason to contemplate the passenger ferry as it cut its way to Circular Quay from Manly and back again. Now, she wasn’t sure she’d ever been so grateful to see anything before in her life.

  But – what’s it doing here? This is way west of where it should be –

  “Hey! You guys! Need a hand?”

  Delilah blinked at the sound of a voice hailing them through a megaphone from somewhere above. She thought she recognized the voice, but with the spinning of her thoughts and the distortion of the megaphone, she couldn’t quite place it.

  “Trent?” Euan said a moment later, sounding puzzled. “What the fuck?”

  Delilah stared. Was Trent driving the Manly Ferry?!

  “TRENT!” Euan’s voice was usually soft and growly, but he could definitely make himself heard when he wanted to. “Have you HIJACKED the MANLY FERRY?!”

  “When it looked like you guys were in trouble, I figured this was quicker than heading back to the office and signing out another powerboat,” came Trent’s explanation. “No one was on the harbor, since it’s been evaced. It was just sitting there! So I hotwired it.”

  “You HOTWIRED the MANLY FERRY?!” Callan yelled up at him.

  “I got the idea off Delilah!” Trent sounded way too cheery about the situation.

  “You leave me out of this! That was a joke!” Delilah said, looking desperately at Euan. “I meant it as a joke!”

  “I know you did,” Euan muttered, shaking his head. “Believe me, everyone except Trent apparently realized that was a joke.”

  “Well, we can stand around arguing all day about who hotwired what, or you can come on board and we can try to do something about that, uh, thing,” Trent said.

  Delilah felt a chill in her gut. She looked around for what Trent was talking about, and once again saw the ominous V of rippling water that showed that the monster was on the move again.

  Only this time, it was headed straight for the city – straight toward Circular Quay.

  Oh my God.

  She was about to shout to Trent to throw her a rope or something, when she felt a rush of air against her face. Looking up, she saw a large griffin hovering above her – its massive eagle’s wings slowly flapped to hold it in place as it reached forward with its massive talons, the tail attached to its lion’s hindquarters swishing behind it to help it keep its balance in the air.

  Despite knowing that it was either Rhys or Hector – she honestly couldn’t tell which in griffin form – Delilah instinctively shied away from the massive talons coming toward her, until Euan put a hand on her leg.

  “It’s okay. He won’t hurt you.”

  Delilah nodded. “I – I know,” she said, licking her lips and steeling herself. She wasn’t sure what to do, but she lifted her arms, and felt the griffin’s claws close gently around her upper arms. And then, with a flap of its wings, it lifted her securely up and away for the few seconds it took to fly her to the upper deck of the ferry.

  Only a few moments later, Euan was by her side, dripping wet but completely unharmed. The griffin who’d flown him up dropped to the deck and folded its wings, before shifting into the more recognizable form of Rhys.

  “What the hell was that thing,” were the first words out of his mouth when he’d completed his transformation.

  “I don’t know,” Delilah said shakily. “If it has a name either I don’t remember it, or the man in the alley didn’t think it was important enough to pass on.”

  Together, they leaned far out over the ferry’s railing as Trent turned the massive ship around, before sending it steaming back across the bay. Delilah had always thought the ferries looked like sturdy ships as they powered their way across the harbor, but it was only now that she was beginning to appreciate just how sturdy – and how fast they could go, though she thought Trent might be pushing the engines to their limits.

  Still, they didn’t have any time to waste. The creature was ahead of them, heading under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And who knew where Lev, Alisa, and their henchmen had gotten to? It seemed as though a lot of them had fled when the yacht was destroyed – but Delilah had a hard time imagining that Lev and Alisa would so easily give up on the monster, even if it had smashed their yacht to pieces.

 
Lev seemed so sure he could control it, Delilah thought as the wind whipped her hair around her face. I don’t think he’d give up that quickly, if he thought it was possible. I’m certain he’ll try again…

  Delilah caught her breath, as an idea struck her.

  He thought he could control it. That’s what their plan was all along, then – to wake it, and make it do their bidding. So… he was planning on using alicorn mind control powers on it?

  Only it hadn’t worked. Clearly, Lev had not instructed the monster to wreck his yacht.

  But what if… what if it could work, and for some reason Lev was just doing it wrong?

  Delilah’s heart thudded against her ribcage. If what she thought was correct, did that mean she had the means to stop the beast herself?

  She looked down at her fingers where they gripped the railing. They just looked like her normal, everyday fingers. The ones she’d held paintbrushes with from the time she’d first taught herself to paint as a child. The ones she’d used to tickle Rosie when she’d been a baby. The ones she’d used to stroke Euan’s face and run through his short, dark hair.

  But I also used them to send out a blinding flash of light. And to knock two alicorns unconscious without even trying, she thought, taking a deep breath. But everything I’ve used those powers on so far has been, well, more or less human-sized. And I’ve never tried to mind control anything. And I’m still only just learning how to control and direct the power at all…

  “Here it comes.” Euan’s voice was low and grim.

  Alarmed, Delilah looked up, eyes wide, as she saw –

  This time, she had a full view of the monster, without a flybridge to cut off her field of vision.

  It was, somehow, even worse than she’d thought.

  Delilah had always had a healthy fear of crocodiles – that was normal. That was good. Delilah had spent a few summers on family trips up north, and being cautious of saltwater crocodiles was just something you had to get used to if you wanted to spend any time up there.

  But this…

  This was not something Delilah had ever thought she’d have to worry about.

  Not that the beast currently hauling itself out of the water could be called a crocodile, per se. All the big crocodiles Delilah had ever read about were about seven meters long – but this one… this one was a lot bigger than that. Delilah wasn’t sure she wanted to speculate on how big it actually was, especially since it was still hauling itself, meter after horrifying meter, out of the water of the harbor, which ran in gushing rivers down the length of its body.

  And it could stand on its back legs – they were short and stumpy, but they could support the weight of its wide, bulky, black-scaled body. Spikes ran down the length of its back, pointed and jaggedly uneven.

  But it was its head that really reminded Delilah of a crocodile – long, flat and thick, it looked almost like some kind of medieval club, if medieval clubs had jagged, protruding teeth… and terrifyingly malevolent yellow eyes.

  Delilah shivered. She knew that eye. It had been the eye she’d seen in her dreams. Everything about it made her want to scream and run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Not that it’d do any good; that thing was big enough that she’d need to run for miles before she’d get out of the way of its jaws – or the sweep of its tail, which she now realized it had used to destroy the yacht. But she knew that if she wanted to have any hope of putting her theory of what she was supposed to do to the test, she had no choice but to get closer.

  “Euan,” she said urgently, touching his hand. Euan’s lips were pulled into a thin, hard line as he looked at the towering monster as its enormous head swung this way and that, apparently trying to choose a direction to go in. Its lower half was still completely submerged, but its tail snaked dangerously over the surface of the water.

  When he looked down at her, Delilah could tell he wasn’t going to like what she had to tell him – hell, he’d almost forbidden her to come here altogether.

  Not that it’s his choice, Delilah thought with determination. We might be mates, but what I do is still my business only. And if I think this has a good chance of working, then I’m going to do it.

  “I think I have an idea about how to stop that thing, whatever it is,” she said. She took a deep breath. “But I need to get closer. I’m still getting the hang of the powers the man in the alley passed on to me. But I think I can use them to… to put that thing back to sleep. Or at least convince it not to go on too much of a rampage. Maybe. Very maybe.”

  Euan’s eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”

  “Lev said he could control it – I mean, I know he couldn’t, but maybe he wasn’t… doing it right. Maybe there’s something else I can do – some way of using the alicorn mind control powers that would – that would –”

  Delilah trailed off. With every word she spoke, Euan’s face was growing darker.

  But he has to understand that I have to try! And what other options do we have?!

  “I want to try it,” she said, squaring her shoulders and looking up defiantly into his face. “But I know I’m going to have to get close to it. Maybe very close. But I think I have a chance. And furthermore, I think you can protect me while I’m doing it.”

  Either he’d agree to that or he wouldn’t, Delilah supposed. If he didn’t, she’d just ask Hector or Rhys to fly her to where she needed to be.

  Euan looked down at her for a long moment, his eyes dark, his jaw clenched. Then, he let go a long breath.

  “I won’t lie and say I like it, Delilah. But I think you’re right. I think you have to try – and I know I can’t stop you anyway. I know you’re courageous enough to do it, and I know you’re our only hope right now. Since I don’t think Rhys’s harpoon gun would make so much as a tiny little dent in that thing’s side.”

  He glanced out to where the monster – it really did look like a somewhat mini-Godzilla, Delilah thought – was now wading through the water, having decided its course.

  Oh my God, Delilah thought, her blood chilling in her veins. It’s going for the Opera House.

  “Watch out – we have incoming.” Trent’s voice over the ferry’s PA system broke her out of her horrified paralysis.

  Delilah looked up to see the swooping forms of four or five alicorns descending from the sky – apparently all that was left of Lev and Alisa’s posse of henchmen. Lev and Alisa were probably up there amongst them.

  “I can’t promise we can do much if they use their flash-bomb powers or their mind control, but we can at least try to harry them a little and try to keep them off your backs,” Hector said.

  “Really, you guys should have thought about it when you became shifters who couldn’t fly,” Rhys informed them, before both of them shifted into their griffin forms and launched themselves into the darkening sky with a sweep of their massive wings.

  “Well, that was unnecessarily rude,” Callan commented, watching them go. “I like being a diprotodon.”

  “And there’s none of us who can do much about that thing,” Euan said, eyes on the monster. They were getting closer to it – Trent was clearly pushing the ferry to its limits. Delilah could hear the engines roaring as it churned through the ocean.

  “What even is it?” she breathed as she stared at it – black, spiny and massive, like something out a nightmare – or the Jurassic period.

  Maybe that’s exactly where it came from.

  “I don’t know, exactly,” Euan said. “But you hear stories – there’s always been stories of massive monsters and other creatures that live in the waterways here. Australia’s an old country – who’s to say what’s been left over here? Legends and stories aren’t usually based on nothing, after all.”

  Delilah nodded. That made sense, she supposed, but she was still chilled at the idea of a creature like this having been sleeping at the bottom of Sydney Harbour for thousands, or maybe even millions of years.

  But then, why not? Delilah thought. A few days ago,
she would have thought the idea of shifters was way too utterly fantastical to be believed – and now she’d pretty readily accepted that they not only existed, but that she was a shifter’s mate.

  There was no point in denying it, Delilah thought, as she stared out over the water at the massive creature. She’d just have to accept it – and accept that she might be the only one who could do anything about it.

  “When you say close, how close do you mean?” Euan asked her.

  “As close as possible,” Delilah said. It didn’t make her happy, and she was fighting down terror with every second that passed. “Maybe I might even need to… to get on it.”

  She’d only been able to use her knock-out powers when she’d actually been touching Alisa and the alicorn she’d encountered in the yacht corridor. She didn’t think they had the time to waste trialing another way when it came to this monster.

  Especially not since –

  “Oh, fuck.”

  Trent’s voice over the PA system said what they were all thinking.

  Oh fuck just about summed it up, Delilah thought in a daze, as she watched the monster rear back on its hind legs and let out what could only be described as an almighty growl, before smashing its front legs down on the granite of the platform of the Sydney Opera House.

  And then, it began to climb.

  “Well,” Callan said, staring at it, “that’s not very good.”

  Delilah could do nothing more than stare as the creature slowly hauled itself up over the first white arch of the Opera House. Even at this distance she could hear the groan of steel beams under stress, the cracking of the ceramic tiles that covered it. They sheared off and crashed to the ground as the creature clambered its way up, claws puncturing the building to keep its grip. It was so massive that even as its top half clawed its way over the Opera House, its back half remained in the water of the harbor.

  “Quick, Delilah, I have an idea.” Euan’s voice in her ear shook Delilah out of her horrified trance. Euan took her hand, pulling her behind him as he raced across the deck and then up the stairs to the bridge, where Trent was still gunning the engines.