by Vanessa Jaye
He paused without facing her. “Do you think that makes one goddamn bit of difference?”
Mitch stopped only to heft up a beam from the debris littering the deck. He jammed his fist into it and left behind a pendent. “Hey, motherfucker!” he yelled and began running.
Angelica and Nate had split apart. Now they turned towards him. With a mighty roar, he swung the beam at the nearest Pithcus, muscles bunching and rippling with the force of his hit. The creature screamed as it shot backwards into the pool, where it sunk ominously out of sight.
“That’s for lying to me. Bitch.”
Tessa let out a broken sob. She clutched the counter. Maybe that wasn’t him. Maybe—
Mitch spit out a glob of blood and threw away the board, facing the remaining monster. “As for you. At least now I know the truth.” He assumed a martial arts pose, ready to engage in fight. “The carpet does match the drapes.” He beckoned the creature with a stiff wave of his outstretched hand.
The Pithcus moved with inhuman speed, but Mitch held his ground. When it swept him up in its arms, he rammed his fists into its sides in a fury of motion, stabbing over and over with the deadly brass knuckles. The creature went into a frenzy. Its screams so high pitched the bar echoed with the sound of cracking glass.
Tessa slapped her hands over her ears, eyes widening as a web pattern stamped into each bottle with a crack, crack, crack that raced from bottle to bottle like fallen dominoes across the shelves.
She made a run for it, tumbling over the bar top to land on the deck moments before the stock simultaneously exploded, spraying liquor and glass all over the place.
Crouched down, she saw the Pithcus raise Mitch up and wrench one of his arms behind his back with a stomach-turning snap. His agonized shout was short lived as the creature whipped him in Tessa’s direction. It happened so fast, she couldn’t react. His body hurled past her and out of sight.
“No!” She ran to the rail.
And gasped when she found herself looking into Mitch’s golden eyes, much closer than she expected. He was hanging on to a steel brace by one hand, while his other arm stuck out at an odd angle, the shoulder much lower than it should be.
“I tried to save him,” he said through gritted teeth.
His eyes rolled back into his head and he swung away, backwards, in a perfect arc. Time slowed as he fell, straight as an arrow, shrinking to a tiny figure that was consumed by the sea with a distant splash.
“No, Mitch.” She felt hot tears stream down her face.
“That’s what I said. But some guys you just have to strong-arm to make them pull out,” a voice rumbled behind her.
Tessa spun around, the rail cutting into her spine as she pressed back. Her heart was racing too fast and she couldn’t get enough air into her lungs.
Cold black eyes appraised her. The Pithcus’s breathing sounded unnaturally loud, and its gait was halting. By the lights of the deck its fur appeared wet and plastered to its body in patches.
Tessa darted to the left. Angelica moved quicker to block her off.
“Are you scared, Tessa? You should be. This is going to be very painful for you, and enjoyable for me. I’ve acquired a taste for the little wolf’s women. And now it’s time for seconds.”
“Think again,” another guttural voice snarled. “That fur you’re wearing makes your ass look fat. Time to go on a diet. Permanently.”
The Pithcus turned. “You!”
Tessa felt all the blood drain from her head. “Nate,” she whispered.
He flung something at Angelica and she arched back with a hair-raising screech. Before she started clawing at her face, Tessa saw one of Mitch’s pendants embedded deep in her eyeball.
Like a shot, Nate barreled into the creature and they tumbled overboard. Tessa cried out as the two, locked in a death embrace, bounced off the rail of the deck below with an awful crack. One creature went limp, limbs flapping, as both bodies plunged into the watery blackness.
Only the quelling ripples left behind marked where they’d hit sea. Tessa heaved and her dinner came up, and when there was none left, streams of bile scoured her throat, draining out in long stings of spittle.
Then she sank to her knees and wept.
There were questions. Of course there were. The passenger list compared to those present and accounted for. Others were checked off as they returned from shore.
But three bodies couldn’t be found, and by coincidence, Tessa had been seen in the company of all three earlier in the evening.
She found herself is a small room with two of St. Stephan’s finest. Their crisp khaki uniforms and jaunty red berets made them no less intimating than the more sedate blue and black uniforms and baseball caps she was used to seeing on the streets of Toronto.
No, she hadn’t known the missing persons very well. She’d only met them onboard.
No, she couldn’t confirm what type of animals had been on the deck or where they’d come from. It had all happened so fast. “Were there bears on the island?” she asked all wide-eyed innocence. Yes, one of the creatures might have been a big black cat. She couldn’t say for sure any more than any of the other eyewitnesses. Yes, she agreed, the blurry images captured on confiscated cell phones didn’t really help.
No, she didn’t know why she was the only one who survived the attack. She’d spent most of it hidden behind the bar.
Had she and Mr. Nathan Smith been arguing just prior to the incident? That almost made her laugh. Smith? Really? And just as quickly, she sobered. What was Nate’s last name? Somehow she doubted it was Smith. It felt like she knew so much about him, and yet a pedestrian thing like a surname—
“Miss?” The police officer gently prodded and Tessa forced herself to focus on the moment.
“We weren’t arguing. It was just a small tiff.” She ran a trembly hand through her hair. “Is it possible to get some water?”
“Of course, of course,” said one officer, Inspector Jonas as he’d introduced himself. He made a gesture to the other junior officer who stuck his head out of the room briefly and exchanged words with someone out there.
“Now what was this disagreement about?” Inspector Jonas persisted.
“I wanted him to come back to the cabin with me,” she said and colored when the officer raised an eyebrow.
“Hard to believe he wouldn’t accommodate you.”
“Yes, well, we’d spent a lot of time in the cabin earlier in the day. He wanted t-to do something different.” She colored even more.
He made a noncommittal sound while the officer by the door started coughing. The two men exchanged looks. Nice one. She’d all but announced she was a nympho, just to keep Nate and Mitch’s secret. A knock broke the awkward moment and her water was delivered.
There were more questions, but in the end they let her go after confirming all her particulars and contact information. Her statements had corroborated, for the most part, with other statements they’d collected so far, so they had no reason to hold her further.
Tessa went straight to see the captain. She wanted off the ship now. She’d fly home. Once her decision was cleared with the island officials and all other proper channels, the cruise line arranged for her accommodation at an onshore hotel and the earliest flight out from the airport on the other side of the island. The hotel would arrange her transportation to the airport, and, of course the costs would be covered. She might have been more appreciative, if she didn’t think they were trying to avoid a lawsuit.
She packed quickly and was escorted off the ship by another police officer who reminded her of Silas with his non-stop chatter, although he kept it at a much more subdued level than Silas. Her unconventional check-in went smoothly. Even more surprising was the luxurious digs they’d come up with on such short notice. Not that she cared one way or the other.
Tessa kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the king-size bed, dirty torn dress, bruised limbs and all. A shower seemed like too much effort. Undressing too. All she had t
he energy to do was wrap her arms around her knees and stare beyond her reflection in the balcony doors to the blackness of sky and water.
She opened her mind, and more importantly, her heart, calling to Nate, straining for even the slightest hint of his presence. She was met with complete and infinite nothingness. It was a soul-deep amputation.
The hours passed, and as the sun rose with the dawn the truth finally sunk in.
He is dead.
She closed her eyes and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. It was the only way she could keep on breathing in a world without him.
Chapter Seventeen
Tessa waited under the hotel’s awning by a huge terracotta pot filled with hibiscus and bougainvillea. The flowers’ heady bouquet suffused the area, released by the same breeze that lifted strands of her hair and swept the bracing scent of the sea inland.
From behind her shades, she watched that selfish sea, its endless waves rippling like shards of glass under the baleful sun. Nate and Mitch were somewhere out there.
What was left of them.
She’d called the police station just before checkout, desperate for news, and the inspector spoke to her personally. He was sorry to say there was nothing to report. The local divers had been out for several hours this morning, but so far no bodies had been recovered.
With that single official statement, Tessa truly understood the resiliency of hope, and how much it hurt to have it irrevocably stamped out. They were looking for bodies, not survivors.
“Ma’am, your taxi is here.” The doorman stood before her, the deferential smile creasing his plump cheeks identical to the one he’d greeted her with twenty minutes ago. She’d been so caught up in her tormented thoughts that she hadn’t noticed him collecting her suitcases.
Tessa nodded, not trusting herself to speak and followed along, head down, keeping only his smartly pressed trousers and polished shoes in sight. But when he stopped to exchange words with someone, her head jerked up. She recognized that voice.
Silas turned from stowing her luggage in his trunk and shut the mint-green hood. He gave her a solemn nod. “Miss Tessa.”
“Oh.” Her throat convulsed around a sudden spike of pain.
He patted her shoulder awkwardly, his smooth dark face as distraught as she felt.
“Never you mind,” he said coaxingly, like an adult comforting a child through the unexplainable. “They were good men. But we’s alive, and we must honor their memory by staying strong. You understand me?”
“I do,” she choked out. “But Silas, it’s so hard.”
“I know it, Miss. Remember, though the good Lord never gives us more than we can bear.”
Then the good Lord had her mistaken for an eight-hundred pound sumo wrestler.
Silas seemed to be at a loss for more to say, which was a testament in itself of how much the deaths had affected him. They got into the taxi and were off. A few minutes of driving in silence and he asked when her flight was scheduled to leave. After she told him, he announced he’d take a more scenic route across the island as they had plenty of time.
Tessa shrugged in agreement. Being treated like the average tourist would be better than just hanging around an airport lounge, trapped in public with her private sorrow. At least Silas understood some of it, and more importantly, he seemed as disinclined as she to talk. A classic case of misery loving company.
They drove past the Pirate’s Market. The place was bustling with tourists as if the recent disappearance of three other foreigners just a day earlier was little more than idle gossip at this point.
And there—there was the spot Silas had dropped them off after the visit to Templeton’s. And where Angelica had just happened to run into them again. Tessa shivered. The redhead had been stalking them all along.
It was inconceivable so much had happened within the twenty-four hours that had followed, including one precious night with Nate. One night that barely began a deeper exchange of histories, or touched upon plans for the future. She bit down hard on her lip, stifling the little grunt of pain that burst in her chest.
They’d had one night to experience a lifetime of deeper emotion. Though neither of them had said the words, or even allowed the thought to escape, the emotion had been in every little touch, every kiss.
She bitterly regretted that she hadn’t said what she was feeling out loud, regretted that she hadn’t asked even a portion of the thousand and one questions buzzing inside her head now. Even with the constant threat they’d faced, deep down Tessa had believed the creature would be dealt with, and that she and Nate would’ve had the time to build their new relationship.
So much for instinct. The best night of her life had been followed by the absolute worst. Her stomach clenched as images exploded from that dark place where all nightmares lived. Tessa quickly slammed the lid down on the horrendous memories. She just couldn’t… She took a deep, calming breath, concentrating on taking one after another. Finally, she said quietly,
“Silas, tell me about Nate and Mitch. How did you meet?”
He darted a glance into the rearview mirror. “I met them the last time they come visit Doctor-man.”
“Templeton?”
“Yes, him same one.”
He fell silent and she realized that whatever it was he and the men had shared, he wasn’t willing to share it with her. She tamped down her disappointment.
“It’s all right, Silas. You don’t have to tell me. It’s private. I understand.”
She saw him visibly relax. “No offense, miss.”
“None, taken.”
Then after a short pause he continued, “Really, the only person on the island could tell you ’bout those two would be Doctor-man, but you leaving now—” He broke off when she sat up and grabbed the back of his headrest.
A sense of urgency suddenly strummed through Tessa’s veins. “Take me there.”
“Where? To Doctor-man?” Silas’s voice rose in alarm. He shook his head emphatically. “Oh, no, no, no. Not a good idea. ’Memba, you have a plane to catch.”
“And you said we had plenty of time to get to the airport. I don’t need to sightsee. I need to see Templeton.”
“What you want to see him for? You don’t want to be mixed up with that one.”
“I’m not getting mixed up with him. I just want to know…” Her voice failed her, cracking. When she’d pulled herself together, away from the abyss, she cleared her throat. “I need to know what he knows about Nate.”
Then she’d hoard every precious morsel of information and shared insight, weave them into the cloth of her own experiences and memories, and have something more than she had now.
It would be all she’d ever have of Nate.
Silas continued to shake his head. And Tessa felt a stab of irritation.
“Either take me there or stop the car and I’ll take another taxi.”
Silas made a sucking sound between his teeth. “Nobody gonna take you there. We don’t go up mountaintop, unless needs must.” By the quick flick of his hand, she got that we meant the other islanders. Now he sounded as angry as she.
“Then I’ll walk. Stop the car, Silas. I mean it! Stop now!” She grabbed the door handle.
“I’se not stopping no damn car, damn stubborn, crazy woman!” He swung into the next lane, leaving behind a chorus of squealing breaks and blaring car horns.
“Shut-tup and drive or move out me blasted way!” he railed out the window at the other drivers, looking at them rather than the road ahead.
He stepped on the gas and Tessa was flung back in her seat, belatedly she remembered the lack of seatbelts. As he careened through the traffic, sending her sliding from one side of the car to the next, she started giggling.
She felt the hysteria building. All those emotions she’d pressed down tight threatened to burst out. But the panicky feeling ended with a squeal when Silas executed a particularly daring maneuver onto the road that would take them up the hill.
Loud braying pu
nctuated the curses flying from inside and out of the car, and Tessa was willing to bet Silas had just shaved years off the life of that poor donkey and its owner.
She looked back as the aggrieved farmer flung a piece of fruit after their speeding vehicle, his robust cussing lost in the rush of air through the window.
Just before they took a hairpin curve and he was cut from view, the man stopped gesticulating, dropped his trousers and bent over, showing them his bare ass.
Tessa straightened abruptly in her seat, shocked gaze meeting Silas’s in the rearview. The silence lasted less than a minute before they both burst out laughing.
Then just as quick, the laughter died, reabsorbed in a heavy, dark quiet.
Tessa spent the next miles absently noting landmarks. This gnarled tree festooned in flowering vines like a matron draped in ropes of pearls. Those giant ferns that jutted out into the roadway at the bend. And the view of red-tiled white-walled churches in the valley below as the taxi hit the steepest part of the winding climb. Now here was the turnoff onto a rutted road that led to a pair of dilapidated gates. Silas slowed to a stop.
“I’se wait for you here,” he said, not looking happy about it. “How long you think you be?”
Tessa checked her watch as she exited. The drive up here had eaten into a chunk of time. “Not long.”
She closed the door behind her and he leaned over, speaking through the window, “Maybe you want I come with you, after all?”
Not with his eyeballs looking like two marbles ready to shoot out of his head, and beads of sweat decorating his brow like spangles. He was liable to have a heart-attack just getting out of the car.
“No, you stay here. I’ll be all right.”
“I’se not too sure about that.” She heard him mumble behind her.
She wasn’t either, truth be told.
Now that she was here, she wasn’t so sure she needed to hear all Nate’s secrets. She could get back in the car and chalk this all up to a vacation fling. The extreme horror version.
Except that wasn’t the truth either. The truth lay in the pause between each heartbeat. It was both the hazy thought not grasped before sleep and the vivid dream forgotten upon waking. An object seen from the periphery that was lost in full view, existing but defying explanation—it was all the reasons and ways in which she had been falling in love with Nate.