luck.
She simply nodded.
“Where did you grow up?”
“The Court of Command.”
I snorted. Only a few months ago, Michael struck the Earth with the Sword of Creation and changed the mortal realm, along with all they’d ever known. Hence, she believed she’d been born on that island, even though she spoke with the subtle accent of someone from a former African country. “Born a soldier, then. Do you have any brothers and sisters?”
“Many.” She smiled.
“I also have many.” I was unable to have a flowing conversation with this girl. “Some good, others evil.”
“Which are you?”
I chuckled. “That depends on my enemies. I can heal or crush. My power is…flexible.”
I felt them. Two bodies in the sky. Scouts. I sent out a power probe, a gentle brush against the bodies. One male, and the other was Alcona, one of Michael’s finest and also a female battle angel, which was why breaking her would be my last resort. I retracted my power from her and contemplated killing the male, but that would tell her I was near, and she’d try coming after me, in which case, I’d have to break her.
I flipped the vessel over. The girl screamed, the water swallowing the sound. She swam up, but I couldn’t let her surface and reveal our position. I grabbed her wrist, tugged, and pressed her against me. I didn’t want her to waste oxygen on screaming.
While the angels circled above us, in the water, predatory creatures rounded us, waiting for the right time to strike. We stayed still, and I watched the creatures, trying to figure out which one would attack first. The most aggressive and strongest one for sure. As I observed the sea monsters, the mortal started struggling against me. She was out of air.
I removed my hand from her mouth and pressed my lips against hers, exhaling oxygen into her lungs. She widened her eyes and inhaled, nodding once her lungs were full. I would have to channel my power into her for the duration of our swim home. It would be a slow journey back, taking weeks or more. I needed fast transport. Another vessel.
An eel-like creature three times the length of our overturned boat joined the fray and stared at me with seven eyes, three on each side of her head and one in the middle. A female oye, judging by the horn on top of her head, one of the serpent species Michael brought into the world, not one that had existed in the mortal realm before we crash-landed in a hurry to save mortals from annihilation. As she was at the top of the food chain, the oye would strike first.
I breathed into the girl again and hiked her up onto my back. She held on to me as I braced for the attack. The oye opened her mouth, showing three rows of pointy ten-inch teeth. Here comes my vessel.
The girl let go of me and started swimming up.
I grabbed her ankle, yanking her back down.
The oye snapped her jaws. I twisted, but she got me, nicking my arm. Blood seeped out before I could close the wound, because I was too damn busy struggling with the mortal, who was trying to swim to the surface. Blood would attract more hungry predators, and soon we’d have a school of them circling us.
The oye, having staked her claim on her meal, took it personally that the others had come and started fighting them off. This was good. I got hold of my mortal again and breathed into her, giving her my best glare, telling her without words I wasn’t in the mood for escaping hostages. I pointed to the oye, and we watched her fight off one of the other species.
Slowly, holding the mortal against my chest, I swam toward the fighting pair.
The mortal tried pulling away, but at this point and this deep in the sea, she needed to survive, and that meant doing what I wanted her to do while I gave her oxygen. My power seized her body.
The oye bit her opponent, tearing large chunks of flesh out of it, turning the water into a crimson cloud. I propelled us toward the surface, above the oye’s swinging tail, over her big silver-scaled body and long neck. I grabbed her horn, and the oye took off like a bullet. Water crashed into me, and my grip on the mortal slipped. Instinctively, my power lashed out and took hold of her, tucking her between the creature and me