We could run but would most likely get trampled by the panic of the crowd. Some might make it. But with Gabriel’s blindness and my bruised ribs, we’d most likely be the bodies others walked out on.
“Stay put. I’ll be back to make you bleed.” Oh, good, like he hadn’t already. Indigo pointed his machete at me, then turned and walked toward a group of his Runners who were holding Trace. Or trying to. It looked like the balance was shifting. Trace met him halfway.
Oblivious to the rising level of voices, shouts, and noise, Trace and Indigo started to make an uneasy peace between them. It seemed each faction had about the same number of players. And unless they didn’t want both sides butchering one another, they would have to learn to share. Me. Great.
They argued over who got to use me first, and I don’t mean in a wave-reading capacity.
I didn’t think I was their type. Scrawny and a ballbuster. But that was Runners for ya. Just not too picky.
“The Gastown steam clock is showing. Gastown is coming back,” someone shouted.
“Let’s go. The place is full of antiques and jewelry and gold.”
Oh, my. The jingle played in my mind: Antiques and jewelry and gold, oh, my. Antiques and jewelry and gold…
Gold? I didn’t think so. But wasn’t that just like human nature to think there was free treasure when the fires went out and the floodwaters receded? When something was left unguarded, abandoned, stranded?
There was no gold in Gastown unless you counted a ruined pocket watch or ring. The gold was a myth, an urban legend started by the Runners years ago when the infrastructure first went down. The tale was designed to keep people in and around New Vancouver, to keep the port alive and thriving for the Runner ships that now ruled the sea. I should know: Seamus was one of the first who put it in the wind. With human nature being what it is, no matter how much our world crumbled, how much of it went to pure shit, gold was gold. And people would always want it. No, tonight there would be no gold found in New Vancouver. Tonight there would be only death.
“Blue,” Gabriel whispered, “is something happening?”
I took his hand in mine. The Runners were still arguing over me.
Holding Gabriel’s hand, I placed it over my heart.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Wave?”
His fingers splayed and the warmth of his touch on my breast brought tears to my eyes. There was no denying it: I had missed him.
Missed loving him.
And now to end like this?
That’s rich, Blue. In love with a Runner scum.
Uncle Seamus, once again in my mind. And he was right: I was in love with a Runner, this Runner. And always would be.
I looked at Gabriel, and even with his swollen eyes and battered face, he couldn’t have looked more beautiful.
Gabriel hung his head, clearly miserable that there was nothing he could do. He pulled me into his arms.
I risked the reprisal from the Kings of Pain, and clung to him for the first time since he had disappeared. I realized now that it wasn’t his fault. He had no say in the matter. No control. I knew what that was like. What my childhood was like.
He’d been caught in a trap, a setup, and now a death sentence. And Tsunami Blue—me—should have known better than to get us caught in her own wave. What a big help I was turning out to be.
I pushed away before we got caught in each other’s arms. It would only hasten Gabriel’s death. Something I just couldn’t bear.
“Where is the wave, exactly?” Gabriel asked, his voice strong, steady. I could tell he was thinking things through too, looking for options, for a way out, for a way to live. “Please tell me it’s not as far as New False Bay.” His voice broke. “The boys.”
I grabbed his hands in mine, “No, no, Gabriel. The boys are safe. The wave is here in New Vancouver, now.” I just couldn’t get into the fact that the boys were here too. What good purpose could it serve to worry Gabriel now? And I hadn’t lied: The boys were safe; I was sure of it.
“I can’t see. I’m too weak. I can’t stop it.”
I kissed his hands, his swollen knuckles, his broken nails. “No one can, Gabriel.”
“You don’t understand. I need my eyes. I can—”
“Break it up, you two.” Wolf Man approached us. He was having a hell of a time holding the wolves. I thought of the elephants in Sri Lanka who ran from the water long before anyone had a clue. If he didn’t release the animals soon, they’d turn on him.
“Trace and Indigo made a decision,” Wolf Man said, like a little kid who couldn’t wait to tell a secret. “Guess they’ll be sharing you.”
Sharing me? They were supposed to fight over me, and kill each other in the process. Simple. Well, shit.
“What?” I stood up slowly. “Are they going to saw me in half?”
“Nope. A little threesome, as I understand. Trace has something special planned, I ‘ear.’” He motioned to my ear and laughed at his joke.
I, on the other hand, didn’t.
He’d been holding the leashes with two hands. He switched to one to grab his crotch, pumping forward and back. Like I’d never seen that before.
Still, it was a dangerous thing to do. The wolves worked as a pack, and the alpha, a huge black animal, led the way. He felt it in the leash, the weakness. All the animals needed was a spark. They got it from Gabriel. His fury was almost tangible.
He couldn’t see, but he took a gamble and swung, making a miraculous, brutal connection with Wolf Man. The brute went down with a thud.
“Tell the bastards,” Gabriel said in a voice that could cut steel, “that I don’t share.”
The black wolf broke first, turned on its handler and attacked. Wolf Man’s throat was torn out in thirty seconds. Four others followed suit.
It was just the chaos we needed.
The attacking wolves and subsequent body count threw a block for us.
I’m here, Blue, the sea whispered to me. I’ve arrived.
I looked for the bullhorn. Thank God it was where I had left it.
“So, don’t believe me, assholes? Well, have a look.” I dropped the bullhorn and passed the torch above my arm, illuminating the wave tattoo. Cobalt and aqua and turquoise danced in the light of the flames.
“Believe!” I screamed.
I watched as the crowd went from anger, to hate, to insanity. And I watched the water rush in and sweep around their legs. The wave was here.
“Satan,” someone yelled. The masses were on their feet, panicked and rushing the cage.
“Witch,” another chimed in. Bodies pushed and slammed against the wire.
“Whore,” another yelled. Well, now, that was beyond insulting.
Hundreds of people climbed the mesh, just as I had a short time ago.
I grabbed the torch and Gabriel’s hand and we ran for the back entrance that Snake had come through. The cage would be a death trap in a matter of minutes.
Trace’s and Indigo’s men tried to stop us. That lasted about two seconds. They jumped to “every man for himself” pretty damn quick. A world record, I was thinking. Runners—go figure.
I could hear Trace and Indigo swearing, screaming futile orders that were being ignored. How I prayed they would both drown. More and more screams filled the arena as the water, so strong now, swept in. In the crush of madness drums of burning oil overturned as people ran and pushed and trampled. Flames spread, first to the stage and then to bodies.
As the water rushed in, we ran out.
Out to the grassy knoll that went up and up and up. Blessed up.
Gabriel tripped. “Blue, I’m slowing us down. I can’t see. I—”
“No. We can do this,” I shouted. I stopped and grabbed his swollen and battered hand. I could see what he couldn’t. Lions Gate Bridge. Reaching high into the night sky, with the tower at 364 feet, it would be a safe haven. If we could reach it in time, and we could climb—
You can reach it, Blue. You can. Run, run, run. T
he sea, whispering, like always.
“We’re running,” I said back. I knelt and helped Gabriel to his feet. I ran like the old days, when I was back on the beach with Max. And Gabriel, so strong, so brave, ran with me. And I was by his side for every stumble, every fall.
I told Gabriel I would not leave him.
I told him I didn’t care if he couldn’t see; I had always looked better in the dark.
I told him to get new friends, get Max back, build my kayak.
I told him to live for Nick and Alec.
I told him to live for me.
And last, I told him I loved him. Even if he was a Runner and a delivery boy and a dark angel who had made some bad choices. Nothing a twelve-step program couldn’t fix.
But the sea, unrelenting, once again caught up.
We were engulfed by salt water; the sea tore my hand from Gabriel’s grip and we were separated by foam and water and crashing debris.
The sound was deafening. Still I screamed for him. And I heard him scream for me.
“Damn it, you owe me,” I shouted at the sea. “You’ve taken my family. Please. Don’t take him too.”
I felt myself lifted on the water, up and up. I stopped tumbling and I could swim; I could breathe; I could reach out to hang on to the steel girder that appeared before me. I slammed into the metal beam. My ribs screamed in protest. But I hung on. And all the while the sea laughed.
Gabriel was delivered to me moments later.
His strong arms held me and we found ourselves balanced precariously on the steel beam. Clinging to Gabriel, I watched the water as it tumbled and swept bodies of the dead on to final unknown resting places. And when I saw Ring Girl’s lifeless body battered by debris, I gripped Gabriel harder, knowing it could have been me.
The sea whispered to me: A gift, Blue. A gift. An amber float appeared. Such a small token for so much pain, for so much death…I let it slip away.
The once beautiful and famous Lions Gate Bridge was now a corroded and rusted skeleton of itself. Still, the bridge held strong, though it groaned and swayed as the water battered its base. I watched the water rise, while all along the sea whispered, A little monster, Blue, just big enough to tickle your toes.
When the wave crested, just below my boots, and water started to slink back into the night, Gabriel finally dozed off in my arms. Fighting the cold and the wet and fog, he trembled in his sleep, and I heard him call my name. I talked with the sea, pleaded with it. “If you want to bring a gift, please, please, please bring me my boat.”
Moments later, the sea, the monster that had taken so much from me, finally gave something back. The sleek black-hulled sailboat rocked in the now receding waters just off to our left.
I looked at the sailboat I’d come to love, waiting for us, and I still could not believe it. I’d never asked the sea for so much. I’d never dreamed it would deliver.
We made our descent and scrambled aboard. As we sailed out of the inlet, I knew that New Vancouver was now New New Vancouver. I sighed and shook my head. Another coastline had changed, another city lost.
Chapter Thirty
Gabriel slept soundly in the V-berth of his sailboat.
Which was really my boat.
But I’d given it back to him, so once again, it was his boat. Whatever. Bottom line? I was a really bad pirate. I had buyer’s remorse. That is, pirate’s remorse. Okay. I’d just call it what it was—guilt.
After all, no one looked better on this boat than Gabriel Black.
Exhaustion had set in, total and complete. I didn’t think one of my waves could wake him up.
This time it was my turn to strip him naked and tuck him in. I loved it. Loved him.
I crawled in next to him, snuggling against the side less bruised. Believe me, it was hard to choose. His beautiful body, now stained with iodine, had more cuts, scrapes, and bruises than healthy skin. Still, the golden color fought to shine through the battered areas, once again reminding me that Gabriel wasn’t originally from around here.
So many unanswered questions. All that we had been through and yet so many secrets. For both of us.
Tonight we sailed north, deep into the heart of the New Canadian Gulf Islands. These islands were wild and remote. There was a rawness, a stillness about them that I loved. Craggy cliffs surrounded us. There were deep, clear bays, and even a magnificent waterfall. I felt hidden and safe here, for the first time in days.
We had tied up to a rotting piling that held up the remnants of an abandoned dock. The dock stopped at the mouth of the waterfall and the path that wove beside it. I was grateful for the constant rush of water from the waterfall. Grateful because I could hear the message the sea was whispering in it.
We were running out of time.
At some point we would make our way back to New False Bay. A place I swore I’d never go back to. But to help escort the boys and Aubrey home, back to the safe haven of the familiar bay, I would suck it up and go. After all, I’d do anything for those kids. And both of us couldn’t wait to get back to them.
For now they were still tucked safely away on Grouse Mountain. I had told Gabriel that his little band of two had grown to three, and Aubrey was her name. And didn’t I just love him all the more when he flashed his twin dimples and simply said, “Good. I can’t wait to meet her.”
The waters around what was once New Vancouver had been almost impossible to navigate. The sea, still angry, had filled with giant swallowing swells. The sea had also filled with Runner ships. All looking for us. For me. Unfortunately, two of the ships we sighted belonged to Trace and Indigo. I should have known they were just too stubborn to die. Damn it anyway.
Gabriel moaned in his sleep and I put my hand on his heart, calming him. I brushed his long black hair from his shoulders and kissed his neck. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew they were swollen, the flesh around them angry and red. How I wanted this man. With or without sight, legs or no legs, arms or no arms, I’d take him anyway I could. I’d just take him, my pirate with the golden skin; take him and sail and sail and sail. Away from Runners, and ruined cities. Away from filth and violence and unhappy souls. Just away.
But of course that wasn’t possible.
Gabriel had a family in the boys. And Bacon. And maybe little Aubrey. And I was crazy about them too.
That’s why I couldn’t stay. In this bed, on this boat, in his life.
I was a danger to them all. I was Tsunami Blue. The wave girl everyone wanted to use for their own gain.
It wasn’t over.
My thoughts turned to Indigo and Trace, such evil men in a lawless world. How could I risk bringing that into the innocent lives of children? Of Nick and Alec? Of Aubrey?
Arriving under a blanket of stars last night, we had both been so exhausted, so physically and mentally beaten up, that we had simply collapsed the moment the boat sailed into this tiny bay.
And the second night was already upon us.
I wished time would just stop. Just end at this moment with Gabriel Black in my arms, and the stars, always familiar, winking, watching, smiling. Time could just take a holiday and leave us in the safety of this bay, this blessed sanctuary.
The bay was pictured on a creased and frayed postcard Gabriel had pinned next to a picture of me at age five, sitting in the Thai sun. Both, it seemed, were destinations for him.
He had never been here, he said, had always wanted to find it, to experience it. And now, after all these years of searching, searching for this place, searching for me, he couldn’t see any of it. Couldn’t see me.
Gabriel Black was still blind.
As I caressed his back, he moaned and rolled, taking me in his arms. I went to him willingly, wanting this, wanting him. All of him.
Because time wouldn’t stop. Men like Trace and Indigo wouldn’t stop. The waves, huge and monstrous, wouldn’t stop.
And time, of course, would never—could never—stop.
The sea was living in the waterfall now, whispering t
o me throughout the night: Coming, coming, coming, Blue. A wave like no other.
I slipped out of his arms and off the bunk, padding out to the cabin, and climbed out into the cockpit. I couldn’t put it off any longer. I thought of Nick and Alec, of our mystery girl, Aubrey. I thought of Bacon and pictured Max, waiting for me on the shores of New San Juan. And last I saw the children, the thousands I knew in my heart were out there, waiting, waiting for Tsunami Blue to tell them, Sleep, sleep now, little ones; the wave tonight does too.
But it wouldn’t for long.
We had two days. At best. The message had been tapping on the hull, had been sprinkled in the evening rain, had shown up—when I cried alone while Gabriel slept—in my tears.
Coming, coming, coming.
So I now had a fairly good idea when. But where? Where?
I had to have a conversation with the sea. And I would have to go to the waterfall to do it.
I had the time frame when the wave would come. Now all I needed was the place. I had to broadcast soon. Or there would be no one left on our blue, blue planet to broadcast to.
The wave would peak at New Seattle. What was left of the city would be underwater completely. So would the New San Juans, including as far up as New False Bay and farther. And it would roll on and on and on.
A monster like no other.
We might not be safe even this far north. Was anywhere safe?
I couldn’t stop it. What good was it to know what was coming? I couldn’t stop the death. Stop the bodies that would float up afterward, their stark, unseeing eyes accusing me.
If you knew, if you know so much, why couldn’t you stop it? Why? How many times had I been asked that question?
I put my head on my knees and cried.
“Blue?”
Tsunami Blue Page 21