by Tracy Deebs
Page 32
But showing weakness wasn’t an option. Not now, when what looked like the entire bunyip army surrounded us. And not when Sabyn was so clearly attempting to establish his domination over me.
I let myself sag against the wall, let it and the water hold me up like I just didn’t have the strength to do it anymore. His surprise at the unexpected move was obvious in the way his balance shifted and his grip loosened. It was the response I was looking for, and I took advantage of it, slamming my head back into his nose as hard as I could.
The water blunted the impact, but he still howled. I started to spin away, using moves I’d learned from my first mertrainer. Sabyn’s hand tightened in my hair in an effort to hold me in place, but it was too late. I was done being held captive.
I kept spinning, ignoring the pain that came from a small handful of hair being yanked out of my head. I shifted then, lashing out with one of my legs to catch him in the groin at the same time I sent a blast of water straight at him. Normally it never would have hit him—Sabyn was by far the most skilled fighter I had ever seen, save Kona, but the groin shot had incapacitated him, just as I’d intended. He stumbled back, hit the wall hard, his legs splayed as he tried to recover from the one-two punch I had just delivered.
I took advantage of the moment, racing for the nearest window. I had to get through a bunch of bunyip to do it, but while they were pure evil, they weren’t the smartest creatures or the best fighters. I simply blasted them out of my way with the most powerful pulse of water I could muster, watched as they went spinning. Then I dove through the window, shifting back into mer form as I raced down the street. The last thing the people of Coral Straits needed was to see me running around in human form in only a bikini top.
It was a straight shot down the main drag to the city fence, and I used every ounce of speed I had. If I could get through the fence and out to the ocean, maybe I had a chance of reaching Kona’s guards before they got too far away. They’d been swimming fast, but I was fueled by adrenaline and terror and knew that I could get close enough to at least telepath them a message. I might not have the communication skills of Kona or Mahina, but I’d gotten good enough to send a message across a few miles of ocean, even without someone else holding the bridge open for me.
I was halfway to freedom when I saw it, the hideous half-octopus, half-man monster that had attacked my father and me in San Diego. It slid out of a side street to position itself directly in my path. It was standing on the ocean floor now and somehow, that only made it more intimidating—maybe because I could see just how huge the thing really was. It stood as tall as a three-story building, and I couldn’t even begin to guess how long its tentacles were.
I kept swimming full out as my options flashed through my head. Not that there were many—if I slowed down to make a turn onto a side street, the bunyip and Sabyn would be on me. If I didn’t slow down, I was going to end up flying right into that thing. Which, considering how pissed he looked, was an exceptionally bad idea.
whatever I was going to do, I had to do it quickly. I was running out of time, the distance between us closing quickly as he ran straight at me.
A hundred feet.
Where was a side street when you needed one?
Seventy feet.
Geez, that thing was fast.
Fifty feet.
So were the bunyip. I could feel one nipping at my tail.
Twenty feet.
Okay, okay. I was going to—
Ten feet.
Oh, God, this was it.
Five feet.
I swerved at the last second, put my arms out in front of me, sucked in my stomach, and shot straight through between two of the monster’s flailing tentacles. It roared its dis pleasure even as it spun around and gave chase.
I shot an energy blast over my shoulder, then another and another, not bothering to see if any of them landed. At this point, killing the army chasing me wasn’t my objective—getting away was. I would worry about coming up with a plan to defeat them later. Right now, I just wanted to live long enough to get a chance to formulate that plan.
As I swam, I gathered power from the water, then directed it behind me in a rapid stream of electric shocks. I heard a bellow of rage, followed by a few high-pitched screams and knew I’d hit some targets at least—though I didn’t know how much damage I’d done.
The success gave me a renewed sense of confidence and I shot a couple more blasts behind me. There were more screams, and I was about to congratulate myself when I caught sight of a black tentacle out of the corner of my eye. The monster had managed to catch up to me.
I dropped low to the ground to avoid its reaching grasp, shooting jolts of electricity in both directions as I did. They missed, but the third time was the charm. I hit a tentacle with a blast of energy so huge that I sliced the thing clear off.
Oily black blood leaked into the water around me, but I dodged it, swimming even lower in an effort to avoid the noxious stuff. Four months ago I’d run into a sea creature whose blood was poison for mermaids, and while this octopus thing obviously wasn’t her, I didn’t know what—if any—special powers its blood did have. Not to mention the ew factor. Better to avoid the blood altogether than suffer terrible consequences because I got too cocky.
I followed a bend in the road, realized as I did that I was back in the outskirts of town. The fence was only half a mile or so ahead. If I could just get through it, I stood a chance. I knew I did.
I put on a final burst of speed, using every ounce of energy I had in reserve. At the same time, I gathered all the power I could from the water. It wasn’t like I could assume the mermen standing guard were just going to open the gates for me. They hadn’t warned me about Sabyn on my way in, so I figured that was a good indicator that they were on his side. Which meant I would have to blast my way through the thick gates with no help from anyone.
Which was fine. I could do it—I knew I could. I’d blasted through thicker things during the whole shipwreck disaster a few months ago. I just needed to get a little closer, a little closer, a little closer … Perfect. I gathered the energy, felt it flow down my arms toward my fingertips and—
Slammed into what felt like a brick wall. Except after I hit it, I kept moving for a few more seconds and it moved with me before slinging me back in the opposite direction. Right toward Sabyn, octo-monster, and an army of gleeful bunyip.
I tried to spin as I flew backward so that at least I’d be facing them when they attacked me, but I was so dizzy from the hit that I couldn’t quite figure out which way I should turn. And by the time I finally recovered from the fuzziness, it was too late. They were all around me.
But so was something else. Something silky and springy and yet invisible. I knew it was there, could feel it brushing against my whole body. But I couldn’t see anything. It was strange and yet terrifying all at the same time.
Finally, I reached out with my hand as far as it would go—which wasn’t far—and tried to blast through the material. But just like when I slammed into it a few moments before, it didn’t work. All that happened was the electricity rebounded, and I had to curl into a ball to keep from being hit by my own shot.
Around me the bunyip cheered while Sabyn looked on, a satisfied smirk on his cruelly handsome face, and it took every ounce of self-control I had not to let loose with a torrent of electricity. The only thing that stopped me was the very real fear that I would end up electrocuting myself. Because whatever I was trapped in was obviously enchanted, which—down here—meant it was made by Tiamat. And after the last battle we had, I was certain she would be only too happy to help me fry myself.