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Chapter Seventy-Six

LUNA

Ario is next to me. Viaro stands at the shore, plucking the last wet bodies from the water. They both stand at attention while I am on my knees, screaming as loud as I can.

Carmine sinks anyway. My voice is eaten up by the dead air.

Viaro comes back and speaks to Ario in Italian.

“Luna.” Viaro crouches next to me.

I can’t hear him over the screams. Fuck, is that me? What am I saying? Is it just No, no, no over and over?

He puts his hand on my shoulder and I jump back, bent into a fighting stance. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

“You have to get out of here.” He takes off my collar.

I feel free enough to commit harder. “I’m not leaving him. And I want my mother. Where is she? Where did he take her? Why can’t we go get him? Is he dead?”

Carmine has to be alive. I can feel his thrall tugging me to him.

“He’s not dead.” Ario points behind me. “But you have to go.”

Over my shoulder, the tattered vampires are wild with hunger and rage. I can’t count them. They are just a mass of gray confusion, mostly heading for Charles.

“Most of them are young,” Ario says. “They’re stupid fledglings. They’re weak, but they’re starving. They’ll run to Charles because he has the rings. When they find out he isn’t going to feed them, they’re coming for you.”

“Charles went with Mom.” I take a few steps in that direction, remembering the horror of how he hitched a ride with Laro. “He knows where she is.”

Ario grabs me and spins me around.

Instinct takes over and I punch him in the jaw. “Ow. I’m sorry, I…”

It doesn’t matter that I didn’t mean it. He shakes it off and takes me by the biceps. I don’t fight. “I promised him.” He’s so tall, I feel like a child in his hands. “They smell you.” There are vampires peeling from the crowd and heading toward us. “You need to run.”

“But.” How far can I get? How do I get home? How can I leave him here? Will Ario bring me back? “They can’t follow me into the water.”

Throwing my hands forward, I push Ario away, and he lets go more from surprise than my strength.

“Sun’s coming up.” Viaro has a pall over him. “We’ll get some sleep and figure?—”

“No.” I cut the air with hand-blades.

Maybe the source of my refusal is the thrall. Or the anger at losing my mother. Maybe I’m just feeling so ornery that Carmine sinking makes every cell in my body scream a single word.

“No.” For all the power of my conviction, my voice is barely audible.

I don’t have a single damn plan except closing the gap between my body and his. I can’t let him die down there, even if he lives forever.

“What’s on that tiny mortal mind?” Ario grabs me by the back of my waistband to keep me from jumping into the water. “Can you even swim?”

“Not really, but he’s drowning every minute. He’s suffering, and you’re just going to get a good day’s rest before planning out a rescue?”

“Use your head. They’re coming for you.”

“I have them.” Scout comes out of nowhere, as if he was hiding the whole time. “I helped build that bridge.”

Viaro turns on the little one with a slight hiss. Ario puts his hand on his kindred’s arm.

Scout seems to intuit the danger of his admission, but continues anyway. “They know me. I was with him. They’ll follow me.”

I trust his intentions because I can see them. It just seems impossible that this little guy could hold back starving vampires that are suddenly so close, but he’s confident enough to head right for them with his arms out and his head high.

“I’m safe in the water,” I say to Ario.

“You don’t know what it’s like under there.”

“Neither do you. Let me go.” I shrug him off.

The sky is turning a lighter shade of gray.

Time to get moving. “If I don’t come back and you get him out, tell him I rearranged you.

Or something.” I toe off my sneakers and toss them to Viaro, who catches them in turn before they hit the ground. “But I’m your only chance.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I’ll go to the boat first. Then swim under. See what I can see. Go a little deeper each time.” I ball up my socks and toss them to Viaro. He stuffs them in each shoe.

Ario looks at Scout trying to drive half a dozen vampires back to Charles, then looks back at me. “Good luck.”

I run to the water. A starving vampire breaks away and chases me. He’s so fast. I can hear him breathing. I feel his hands brushing against me, then there’s a squeal and he’s gone. My feet hit the water. They’re make the minimum splash on entry.

I look back to see if I’m being chased. Scout has just finished cutting the head off the one that got close. He holds it up to scare the others back.

“Go!” he yells to me.

The only part of the boat above the placid surface is a triangle of the rear deck. It doesn’t seem to be sinking any farther. Maybe it’s hit the bottom, or maybe there’s some trick of liminal science giving just that corner enough buoyancy.

A bolt of dull sun hits the water. On the shore, some of the vampires scream and cover their eyes. Others seem fine.

“This is not your business, stupid.” I wade into the water. It opens to meet me and closes behind without much rippling. “You’re not stupid. You’re brave.” It’s to my hips. There’s very little shock from the bathwater temperature. “You’re so brave you’re stupid. Or so stupid you’re brave.”

More shouting behind me. I’m not looking back. I have one job. The bottom slopes. It’s up to my chin. The edge of the boat is a short wade and arm stretch away.

“ Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me… ” I stop singing when my foot falls off a ledge. I snap it back. “ Happy birthday, dear Looonaaa ….”

I’m not a swimmer. My lungs panic after two seconds, but I hold it together to duck my head underwater and open my eyes.

It’s as clear as glass down here. The boat is just over the deep side of the ledge, which slopes into darkness. I don’t see him on the shallow side of the ledge.

If he’s all the way down there, I don’t know if I can reach him.