Cape Storm Page 0,88

speed. It wouldn't last long, but it would give us more of a lead against our pursuer, who had the full weight of the storm to deal with now. I looked back to see its forward progress stalling, as if it had met cooler air to slow it. The storm was lashing that other ship with all its supernatural fury.

Josue, also watching, crossed himself.

The moon rose, but it was quickly veiled by clouds. As night descended on us, it was thick and black and claustrophobic. Only the shattered reflections of our running lights spoiled the illusion of sailing through empty, limitless space.

"Mãe de Deus,"Josue murmured. "It's still coming, that ship. Like a ghost out of the grave." It was a ghost.

The Grand Paradise had gone down, I'd seen it. It had been too badly damaged and too thoroughly flooded to float, and yet there it was, gaining on our tail. The running lights were all working, blazing merrily in the darkness, and it was charging at a speed that didn't seem natural for such an enormous ship.

It was trying to get to me before I reached my destination.

"Hold on," I told Josue, and opened the throttles even more on our nameless little pirate ship, sending it leaping and slamming through the waves like an oversized, wallowing speedboat. The hull wouldn't take it for long, but it didn't have to.

Out there in the darkness was my destination.

I felt a Warden grabbing for control of our engines, and whipped a black scythe of power across the lines of force. It must have hurt, and badly. "Do it again, and you'll pull back a stump," I muttered, and gripped the rail tighter. "Back off." I didn't think they would. If they were strong and confident enough to make it through the hurricane, they'd be more than competent enough to tackle me.

A Djinn breathed into focus on the deck a few feet away, and I prepared for the fight of my life but it was David.

David.

MyDavid, perfect in every line. Not Kevin's incarnation of him.

He didn't say anything. Neither did I. Josue drew a knife and stabbed at him, but David didn't even bother to cast him a look, just flicked his fingers and sent him flying across the deck.

"Are you here to stop me?" I asked.

"No," my husband said, and took a step toward me. Then another. I was in the V-shaped well of the bow, pressed against the rails - nowhere to go but over the side, into the black waters. "I'm not here to stop you."

"Then what?"

He took another step, risking a full attack. I could feel the urge, the need vibrating through me like plucked strings. Don't let him fool you. Don't let him stop you. You need to reach Bad Bob. If this goes badly, you know what will happen. The two of you will be responsible for destroying the world.

In the ripping light of a lightning strike on the cruise ship looming slowly up behind us, David's face was serious and very calm.

"I'm here to help you," he said.

He opened his hand, and in it were fragments of glass.

The broken pieces of his bottle.

I stared at them for a moment, into his eyes. "How - ?"

"Cherise," he said. "She wants you to live. So do I. She got the bottle away from Kevin. She - trusts me."

Cherise was a romantic idiot, in this one sense: She simply didn't understand how dangerous David really was. I wasn't even sure I understood... although I was starting to get a really good idea.

I tightened my grip on the rail as the ship pounded into a particularly deep trough, then painfully plowed up the leading edge of the next wave. "I see. And did you stop for anything else along the way?"

"You mean, did I kill Lewis?" he asked. "Not yet." He took one more step, and we were body to body, soaked with rain, blinded by lightning. Sealed together by storms. "That doesn't mean I've forgotten him. Don't ask me to do that."

I couldn't begin to try. "How did they raise the ship?"

"Who says they did?" David's smile was knowing, and a little bitter. "It's not the Grand Paradise. Lewis lied to you from the beginning. The Grand Paradise was a decoy, designed to lure Bad Bob into showing his hand. He sent the other Wardens out of Fort Lauderdale, aboard the Grand Horizon. It's a sister ship - a little smaller, a little faster. Crewed entirely with Wardens and Djinn.