He leaned in. “But living a privileged life does.”
My anger boiled so hot I could hear the blood pounding in my ears. I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to defend myself, to tell him that I was just like everyone else. But it was a lie. He knew it, too. “Fine,” I finally said, my voice quiet. “You’re right. I’m not like everyone else.”
He smiled a smug smile, as if he’d won the argument and he knew it. But I had to defend myself. I’d never done it before. I’d always gone along with the stereotype, hoping people would see me for who I was but doing nothing to prove it. I realized now that my attitude needed an adjustment. Tats could think whatever he wanted, but not until he knew the truth about me.
“You’re right in some ways. I have everything I want. Does that make you feel better, Tats? Will you sleep better at night knowing you’ve captured someone who deserves it? Someone, in your opinion, who isn’t part of the human race because she has everything she wants? Someone who’s never felt pain, or homesickness, or heartbreak? Is that how you justify this? I have money. Therefore I don’t have feelings.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That isn’t what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you meant. When you look at me, what do you see?”
He tried to make an answer, but I cut him off.
“You see the prom queen. You see the senator’s daughter. You don’t see me.”
Soft flecks of sea foam flew through the air like tumbleweeds caught in a windstorm. I turned away. I should’ve gone back inside, but I was trembling so bad I couldn’t move. The anger formed a hard knot in my throat. If I moved, I would have to hit him.
“That’s not what I was going to say,” he answered with a soft voice. “I see someone confused. I see someone who doesn’t realize their own potential.” He walked back inside. The wheelhouse door closed with a thud. The sound of his beating heart disappeared, replaced by the frenzied clamor of the ocean.
Tats surprised me. His answer wasn’t what I expected. I wanted to go inside and ask what he meant, but thought better of it. He baffled me. He also thought I was a threat to the city. Images of Seattle burning to the ground popped into my memory. The news reports said a Shine had been responsible. I wondered if she’d felt the same way as me, if she thought she wasn’t a threat?
The words of his poem echoed in my head.
Fair Alexandria/Once a beautiful land/Forever she burns.
CHAPTER SIX
After completely freezing off my flighty, spoiled, popular posterior, I went back inside. The Revens gathered around the table. My empty bowl of oatmeal still sat in front of them. Gross.
Greasy-headed Chains looked up when I came in. He smiled to reveal his urine-yellow teeth. It clashed with the gauze on his nose.
Served him right.
Tats avoided me.
Razor.
It didn’t bother me.
I sat on the cot. Their conversation quieted. They must’ve been discussing me. I could only imagine what they planned.
Four heartbeats filled the room, but the echoes of a fifth came from somewhere.
“See what I mean?” Slash asked, eyeing me. “She’s wandering the ship like she owns the place. We should at least confine her to this room.”
“She’s fine,” Chains said.
Tats didn’t weigh in.
“This is loco, dude. We can’t let her go wherever she wants.”
“But she’s so docile. And I think she likes us too much to leave,” Chains answered, and then winked at me.
Barf-fest.
“Docile? Are you out of your mind? She took three of us out in less than a minute. If it weren’t for Memphis, she wouldn’t be on this ship.”
Tats stared at Slash without saying a word. The way Tats sat with his back straight, his eyes focused, reminded me of a jaguar watching for prey.
“Then let me guard her,” Chains suggested. “I promise I won’t let her out of my sight.”
Oh Gandhi, no. I’d jump overboard before that happened.
Slash glanced my way. “No offense, dude, but I don’t think she’ll let you.” He must’ve seen the look of revulsion on my face. “Memphis, you should watch her. You’re the only one who can take her down if she tries to run. I’ll stay in the wheelhouse since I’m better at steering this thing than you two boneheads. We can’t stay anchored forever. Chains, you keep to the galley.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. I can’t trust you with the captures. I don’t want a repeat of last time.”
“She was fine,” Chains answered.
“She was mentally disturbed. You traumatized her.”
Chains sniffed. “What makes you think you’re any better than me?”
“Because I don’t rape our captures!”
Chains crossed his skinny arms.
“Slash,” Tats said. “She’s not going anywhere. Take it easy, man.”
“Have you forgotten what happened in the park?”
“I remember.”
“Then you know we can’t trust her.”
“We can’t trust anyone.” Tats looked at both his friends. “Not even each other.”
“Are you refusing to keep watch?”
“She can’t go anywhere. She can’t do anything.”
Slash pulled a knife from his pocket, then flipped it from end to end. “Fine. I’ll keep watch for the rest of the trip if I have to.” He eyed me. “I don’t trust that one.”
“I’ll take the wheel,” Chains said as he stood. “Unless you change your mind, Slash.”
“No.” He ground his teeth. “Please don’t sink the ship.”
Tats and Chains left the room. The door closed shut with a loud click. The sound of Slash’s heartbeat broke up the silence.
It pattered faster than usual. Did I frighten him? Most people who didn’t know any better feared Shines.
Fear was a good thing.
I could manipulate fear.
“They don’t respect you,” I commented.
He flipped his knife end to end without answering.
“They’re right, though. I don’t need a babysitter. I can take care of myself.”
“That’s what I am afraid of,” he answered.
“So you’re afraid of me?”
“No,” he answered. His heart rate remained even. I’d have to try harder. Most people feared us because we were different.
“I can hear your blood. I see it. I know when you’re happy or afraid or excited. I’m a freak of nature.”
He shrugged. His heartbeat stayed steady.
Maybe he wasn’t afraid of Shines. This could be a problem.
“I’ve dealt with your kind too many times to count,” he said. “You’re freaks, yes. But you don’t have the nerve it takes to be killers.”
I sighed. Time to switch tactics. Something had him on edge. I had to figure out what.
The ship rocked. I grabbed the edge of my cot as the boards creaked.
His heart rate sped up.
Bingo.
His buddies were at the ship’s helm and he must’ve hated it.
“It’s pretty stormy out there, huh?”
“It’s spring in the Atlantic. It always is.”
“I didn’t realize how bad it could get out here.”
“The storms are bad. But the ice is worse. It’s impossible to see in this weather. We’re fools for taking this route, but no one listens to me.”
He flip, flip, flipped his knife. Another wave hit the ship. If I weren’t hanging onto my cot I would’ve fallen off. His knife clattered to the ground.
“Chains is pretty good with steering this thing?” I asked.
“Chains is pretty good with nothing.” He glanced at me. “Except ruining our captures,” he added after a pause.
He snatched up his blade, then narrowed his eyes at the door. It was killing him to sit in here with me. He’d wanted Tats to do it for him.
If I could convince him to leave, I might be able to explo
re the ship and find the stowaway. Maybe Naomi had snuck in. Maybe she would help me escape.
Then again, what if Tats had lied about leaving Naomi in the park? What if he’d taken her and not told anyone?
If that were the case, would I risk Naomi’s safety to escape this boat?
There were too many unknowns, and I couldn’t find out anything by sitting here.
My first priority was to get Slash off my back.
“You’re never safe out here,” Slash said. “The more north we go, the more brutal the storms get. The sea is freezing. If you fall in, hypothermia will take you before you can be rescued. Visibility decreases. And the radar on this boat is shoddy. Navigating around Nova Scotia in this weather is suicide.”
“And Chains is at the wheel. Razor.”
“Yes. Chains is at the wheel.” His voice dripped with disappointment.
“Don’t you think you should check on him?”
He leveled a hate-filled look at me. “So you can run?”
I crossed my arms. “Tats is right, you know. I can’t go anywhere. Why are you determined to guard me?”
“Let’s just say that some parts of this ship are dangerous. And his name is Memphis, not Tats. He’d kill you if he heard you calling him by a nickname.”
“He hasn’t yet.”
“Only because you’re our next paycheck. You should watch out for Memphis. He isn’t like the rest of us. He puts on a good show, but money isn’t his motivation. He’s after something else.”
“Like what?”
Slash shrugged. “He’s looking for someone. I don’t know who. I don’t know why. But it’s his obsession. It keeps him going. A man like that is dangerous.”
I thought about the way Tats had taken me out in the park. He’d moved with preternatural speed. There was only one reason someone fought that good—they were motivated. Money wasn’t enough. Usually it was revenge.
The boat shook. A grating sound filled the room. The floor vibrated. I’m no sailor, but that didn’t feel like a wave.
“Have we hit something?” I asked.
“Ice fields,” Slash answered. “We’re nearing the straits.”
Screeching again. This time the sound was accompanied with ripping metal.
“Que diablos. Chains is going to wreck the ship.”
“Will we sink?” I asked. I didn’t feel a change in Slash’s heartbeat, but perhaps it would speed up with a little more prodding.
He didn’t answer.
“I hope we don’t. Oh, Gandhi, I don’t even have a life jacket.”
Again, nothing. What was wrong with this guy?
“We’ve got lifeboats on here, right?”
As if in answer, the high-pitched shriek of metal ripped through the air. The lights flickered. Slash’s face remained unreadable, though I felt his heart rate increase.
But he wouldn’t leave the room.
What else could I possibly do?
I concentrated on his heartbeats. One hundred and forty bpm. He was definitely anxious, but I needed him to freak out.
I inhaled, pressed my eyes closed, and listened.
Du-dump, du-dump, du-dump.
Speed up.
Du-dump. Du-dump. Du-dump.
Faster.
Du-dump. Du-dump. Du-dump.
Faster!
Du-dump, du-dump, du-dump.
“Faster!” I whispered. “Fast! Fast!”
dudump dudump dudump
Sweat beaded Slash’s forehead. He gripped his knife with white knuckles. Still he wouldn’t leave.
I inhaled. Exhaled. “Increase,” I whispered.
Slash bolted upright. I counted his heartbeats. Two hundred and one bpm. Oops, maybe I’d pushed too hard.
“Stay here.” He said it through clenched teeth. He raced out the door.
I released my pent-up breath.
I’d done it.
I’d manipulated a person’s heartbeat.
I should have felt glad that I’d accomplished something, but instead I felt weirded out. How had I done that?
No time for personal contemplation. I bolted to the door and peeked out. Down the hall, the door to the wheel house had been flung open. Chains sat at the wheel, but Slash stood near him, screaming.
I’m no expert on the Spanish explicative, but I’m pretty sure I was getting an earful of them.
I darted to the nearest exit and left the hallway before the guys saw me. My own heartbeats sped up as I dashed through the exit on my left.
The boat rocked. Muted yellow lights burned behind metal barricades. They flickered with the tilting ship. Wooden walls reinforced with metal rivets stretched before me. My stomach contents sloshed with the rocking back and forth.
The wood-planked walls creaked. It took all my concentration to keep from falling over. Hearing heartbeats over the raging ocean was nearly impossible, but I tried anyway.
Two heartbeats in the wheelhouse. Chains and Slash.
One up ahead. Tats?
Another someplace distant and barely detectable. Chances are, that was the one I needed to find.
The ship was more of a maze than I’d expected, and much larger. As soon as I rounded a corner, another hallway stretched before me. If I got lost down here, I would have no idea how to get back to the deck.
I tried to remember landmarks. I’d heard that in survival situations, people found their way out of remote places simply by remembering where they’d been.
The emergency sign on the wall. The buzzing light behind the rusted cage. The varying labels on the doors. Storage. Galley. Engine room.
I remembered them all. Or tried to.
The heartbeat that had been so faint up above grew louder. The deeper I went, the louder it became, until I found myself in the engine room surrounded by whirring motors.
Concentrating on the sound of a beating heart became nearly impossible over the roaring engines.
I closed my eyes, letting my other senses find the drumming of blood.
I stumbled forward. Grease coated my fingertips as I used the metal cages as handholds. Crimson lights shone from the ceiling and walls, casting a reddish glow over the towering machines. Smells of engine lubricant and motor oil stifled the already unventilated air.
Beads of sweat broke out across my neck and forehead.
The beating.
I heard a faint whisper, and then it disappeared.
Stumbling forward, I made my way to the interior of the engine room. How big was this place? Seemed like a huge boat for three Revens.
But there hadn’t been three Revens at the fight in the park. There were four. Chains and Slash I recognized. Tats hadn’t bothered to wear a mask. So who was the fourth?
He hadn’t been as good as Tats, but he’d given me more trouble than the other two. Who was he? And why had he disappeared?
I heard the heartbeats over the engine. I was getting closer.
A door slammed shut.
I spun around.
The heartbeats disappeared. I found the emergency exit at the back of the engine room. Other than the entrance, this access door was the only other exit I saw. Grabbing the handle, I pulled hard. Bolted shut.
I pressed my ear to the door. Blood whirred. Someone was behind this door. I’d found the intruder, but I had no idea how to get to him. Or her.
“Hello?” I pounded on the door. “Is someone—?”
“What are you doing?” A voice shouted. I rounded.
Slash stood behind me. Crimson light spilled over his dark skin and illuminated his livid features. He held a gleaming, jagged blade in one hand.
“Diablos, you’ll get us all killed. Get out of here, now!”
I held my ground. “Who are you hiding? Is it another Shine?”
“Did you hear what I said? Get. Out.” He gripped the knife tighter.
“Is it the other Reven?”
He cursed, and then lunged at me. I side-stepped him and ran into the maze of machinery. Engines roared around me. U
nless I broke down the door, there was no way I’d get to the stowaway.
Fighting Slash was becoming less appealing by the second.
He threw a knife. It soared past my face and embedded in the wall.
“Stop,” he shouted.
He advanced, corralling me between him, the wall, and a huge metal box. I knew I could take him if I fought, but was it worth it?
“Okay,” I said and stepped back. “Just leave me alone. Natch? I wasn’t doing anything.”
“I should’ve tied you up.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
His heart clamored in his chest. Was he winded from chasing me, or was he nervous about something else?
“You’ve got a stowaway,” I told him. “Over there, hiding behind that door.”
His eyes flinched toward the door. His heart gave a tiny tremble, almost imperceptible, but I felt it. Something scared him.
“You knew about the stowaway already, didn’t you?” I asked.
He grabbed my wrists. My arms twisted as he pushed me forward. Pain shot through my elbows. He walked me out of the engine room, through the corridors, and up ladders until we made our way back to my prison.
Slash shoved me onto the cot. Exposed metal springs stabbed my legs. A putrid smell of dried urine wafted from the worn mattress. I hated this place.
“Stay here,” Slash said before leaving the room. He was gone two seconds when he returned with a coil of rope.
The ship bucked as he wrapped my wrists.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Making sure you don’t go anywhere.”
“With the ship on the verge of sinking?”
He didn’t answer.
I couldn’t let him tie me. What was he thinking? Maybe I could distract him.
“You know who’s down there, don’t you?” I asked him.
“No.” He lied. I didn’t even have to hear his heartbeat to know. He was a lousy liar.
“Is it your girlfriend or something?”
“There’s no one down there.”
“Why are you lying to me?”
“I’m not.”
The boat rocked. Wooden crates clattered to the floor. Slash glanced back, and I took my opportunity.
I kicked him in the stomach.
He fell back and cursed. I scrambled off the cot, but he caught my ankle. I fell hard, hitting my jaw on the wood-planked floor.
Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1) Page 69