Guardian's Mate

  Rae heard the bitterness in his voice. “I’m sorry.”

  “You and me both.” Zander shrugged. “I got over it.”

  “No you didn’t.”

  Zander shot her a glance, an unreadable look in his dark eyes. “Sure, I did. Don’t make me out to be a wuss. I’m fine.”

  No, he wasn’t fine, but his black stare dared her to say so.

  Rain lashed at the window and Zander refocused his attention on where they were going. Waves beat at the boat, trying to drive them into the rock walls that seemed to be narrowing.

  “Hold on to something,” Zander said. “This is going to be tight.”

  Cliffs closed in on them, surging out of the fog as though determined to squeeze them in half. Rae grabbed the sword and slid it back into the sheath, worried it would fall and get even more damaged.

  A rock wall materialized out of the fog and smashed into their side. The impact sent Rae to the floor, the sword flying. Rae lunged for the sword as it skittered and slid across the cabin, almost gleefully, she thought. She scrambled after it. The sword ended up nearly running into the fox that was Miles, until he put out a slim paw and stopped it.

  Rae stilled, afraid it would burn him, but Miles only lifted his paw without a sound. Maybe the sword chose who it hurt or didn’t.

  The Graveyard wasn’t finished. The boat rocked and pitched, struggling to wrench itself free of cliffs that closed in on either side. Rae remained on the floor, her hand on the sword’s hilt, figuring it was useless to try to get up.

  Rocks screeched along the hull with the sound of nails on metal. Rae held her breath, expecting at any second for the sides to crack open and water to come rushing in. The boat would upend and sink like the other wrecks, and they’d be forgotten and stranded, slowly becoming ghosts.

  The men locked below would die first. They were Shifter bounty hunters, happy to drag Shifters to their doom, but Rae wasn’t hardhearted enough to wish death on them. At the moment, though, she couldn’t move to get up and help them.

  The horrible shrieking sound went on and on, then abruptly ceased. The boat shot out from between the rocks and sped forward, swaying heavily. Rae lifted her head to see Zander fighting the tiller, his muscles working.

  “Son of a bitch,” Zander said under his breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Rae pried herself from the floor, the sword in her hand, and pulled herself across the rocking wheelhouse to him. She clung to the chair she’d vacated but remained on her feet. “What happened?”

  “The tiller won’t respond.” Zander turned the wheel back and forth, flipped switches, then smacked the dashboard. “Either that or . . .”

  He trailed off, but this time Rae saw what he saw. The fog was clearing. As it burned off, sunlight shone strongly on the sea, turning it deep blue.

  The narrow, jagged-rock passage had given way to a wider spread of water enclosed by more rocks on the other side. Mountains soared in the distance beyond that. The beautiful blue water churned around the edges of the cliffs, becoming luminous white foam. In the middle of the open stretch a whirlpool sucked water down, down, down into nothing.

  “So,” Zander said, his lips pale but his eyes wide and sparkling. “This is new.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “You mean you haven’t been this way before?”

  Rae’s voice rose with her fear. Zander wanted to turn and comfort her but didn’t dare take his hands from the wheel. There was nothing wrong with the tiller, he realized, as he looked into the whirling water. The undertow was simply dragging them forward, nothing he could do about it.

  “I have been this way,” he said, answering Rae. “But this wasn’t here. Must be tidal, or seasonal, or something.”

  “Great,” Rae said. “What do we do? Go back?”

  Not an option. Zander hadn’t admitted it but getting this far had been a feat of precise navigation that he wasn’t sure he could do again. The fact that they hadn’t broken open like an egg in that narrow passage had somewhat surprised him.

  “No,” he said decidedly. “We go through.”

  Rae’s eyes widened. “Go through? How can we? You are seriously out of your mind.”

  “I know that.” Zander laced his arm around her, pulling her against his side. “Sweetheart, I promised I’d take care of you and get you home all right. I will do that. Do you trust me?” He had to raise his voice over the rush of the chaotic, crashing waves.

  “No,” Rae yelled back.

  “Hey, I will get you out of here whether you trust me or not. But it would be more fun if you did.” He grinned. “Would make me feel all warm and fuzzy.”

  “I’ll give you warm and fuzzy all right,” Rae said darkly.

  “Looking forward to it.” Zander scooped her up his body, pressed swift kiss to her lips, and let her go to hang on to the wheel again. “I’m gonna need your help to take us through this. You up to it?”

  “Do I have a choice?” Rae demanded.

  Zander seized her and kissed her again—it was just so much fun. “No, you don’t. First, I need you to convince Miles to get up off his ass and go over and pilot my boat. I need his senses to steer it through. Piotr’s good, but I need Shifter instincts.”

  Zander directed a glance at Miles, who glared back at him. Rae gave Zander another skeptical look but she laid the sword on the windowsill again then turned and went to Miles, crouching down in front of him.

  Zander had no idea what she said to him. He heard Rae’s voice murmuring like clear water, Miles’s growl in return. She might be telling Miles that Zander was a complete asshole but they needed to humor him.

  Didn’t matter. Zander needed Miles and Rae needed something to keep her from being afraid. Sitting around in terror helped no one, Zander had learned a long time ago. If he was going down, he’d go down fighting—and laughing—all the way.

  Zander had Piotr on the radio. “Hold it steady,” Zander said into the receiver. “I’m sending the pilot back to you.”

  He got a string of Russian in return, which he figured was swearing. “You know, you really are a crazy mo fo,” Piotr finished.

  “Yeah, I hear that all the time. I’m going to get you out of this, my friend.”

  “And when you do, my wife will kill you.”

  Zander only laughed and clicked off the mike. He would take them out of here, and he knew it. The Goddess had chosen Rae for a reason, hadn’t she? And Zander as well. She had something in mind for Rae, and Zander would guess it wasn’t being sucked into a whirlpool in the Graveyard.

  Or was Zander as nuts as everyone said he was? Easy to play the idiot to keep himself from pain—maybe he justified everything he did by the fact that the Goddess had gifted him against his will. Maybe the Goddess would think that sending Zander to a watery grave was a fit end.

  Whatever. Zander would see that Rae was safe, no matter what. Whether Zander perished along the way was irrelevant.

  He heard a rustling and crackling sound behind him and a few moments later, Miles loomed next to Zander. He’d resumed his jeans and sweatshirt and he scowled at Zander in the reflection of the window.

  “Where the hell have you brought my boat?” he demanded.

  “To our ticket out of here,” Zander said calmly. “Piotr’s bringing my boat as close as he dares but you might have to jump to its deck. Can you make it?”

  More scowling. Now that Zander studied the man’s face and hard eyes, he did glimpse the fox in him—a nose that was a little pointed, eyes full of intelligence, a quick way of moving despite his size. His Shifter qualities were slightly dampened by his human blood but Miles was definitely Shifter.

  He fixed his dark eyes on Zander, thoughts moving behind them, then finally gave him a nod.

  “You wreck my boat, bear,” Miles said, pointing a stern forefinger at Zander, “and I’ll kick your ass.”

  “I’ll say the same right back to you, fox.”

  Miles gazed at Zander one more moment, then he quietly put on h
is boots, took up a coat, and banged out of the cabin.

  “Piotr?” Zander said into the radio. “Miles is coming over. Let me know when he’s safe.”

  “He will be when he’s sitting at my fireside tossing back a vodka,” came Piotr’s response. “You’re not invited.”

  “Aw, now,” Zander said into the radio. “Don’t be like that.”

  “Rae’s invited, though,” Piotr said. “Send her over here too.”

  “Can’t. I need her.”

  The stark truth. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight—Zander knew he was the better pilot than Piotr or Miles and he wasn’t about to send Rae to anyone who might not be able to get her to safety as well as he could.

  We’re not going to die. We’re going to live through this so we can celebrate in the best way Shifters know how.

  Piotr snarled something else but Zander heard underneath the man’s bluster and worry a note of excitement. Piotr, in his own way, was as much of a daredevil as Zander.

  “He’s on,” Piotr said, then the radio snapped off into rigid silence.

  Zander let out a breath of relief. “Rae, sweetie, we need to let out Carson and his guys. If this doesn’t work, they should be able to save themselves.”

  “You don’t mean we need to let Carson out,” Rae said. “You mean me. You can’t leave the wheel.”

  “I know. Don’t worry—they’ll be groggy and more interested in surviving than arresting us. We’ll deal with that on the other side.”

  “Why didn’t you have Miles release them before he went?” Rae asked, coming up behind him. “They’d be less likely to attack him.”

  Zander shook his head, liking how her warmth touched him. “Because Carson might have been able to convince Miles to help him take me down, and then we wouldn’t have a chance of making it through. Carson won’t hurt you—he’ll go for me but he’s not the kind of man who will hurt an innocent, especially a woman. I saw that in his eyes. He thinks he’s the good guy.”

  Rae opened her mouth to argue then let out a sigh. “Yeah, I thought that too.”

  “I’m confident we’ll get through, but just in case . . .”

  “Not making me feel better.” Rae hesitated, then she wrapped her arms around Zander, making sure she didn’t break his contact with the wheel. She rose on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Piotr’s wife isn’t the only woman who’s going to kill you when we get out of this, you know.”

  “Looking forward to it,” Zander said, his blood warming. “Go, Little Wolf. Then get your ass right back here to me.” He caressed the ass in question as he gave her a little push.

  Rae sent him one of her looks but ducked out of the cabin into the rain.

  “If you can hear me, Goddess,” Zander said to the water rushing at them. “Make sure Rae is safe. Doesn’t matter what happens to me. Just make sure Rae is all right. She’s a special lady.”

  The water crashed and roared as the boat surged forward.

  * * *

  Rae found Carson already awake and almost finished picking open the lock of the cage Ezra and Piotr had put him into. He snarled at Rae. “What the hell is he doing up there?”

  “Being Zander.” Rae unlocked the cage with the key, quickly stepping back as she swung open the door.

  Carson crawled out and rose from the crouch he’d been forced to assume. He swayed, still under the effects of the tranq. Rae kept out of his reach as she left the room and went to let out the other guards. They’d been put into separate, narrow cabins but these rooms had regular bunks, no cages. The guards were just waking, sleepy, annoyed, and scared shitless.

  “Why are you releasing us?” Carson asked her. He blocked Rae’s way out of the last guard’s room.

  “Because Zander wants to give you a fighting chance.” Rae clenched the keys, determined not to let Carson take them. “I wish he didn’t want you to be out because then I’d know he had perfect confidence that we’ll make it.”

  Carson turned abruptly from her and headed for the stairs. “Shit. What has he done to my boat?”

  Again, as Zander guessed, Carson gave no orders for Rae to be held, and neither of the guards, one of them rushing to the head to be sick, looked interested in capturing her.

  Rae hurried after Carson, clinging tightly to the handholds as she made her way upstairs and out onto the deck. Carson was already in the wheelhouse when Rae reached it, looming right behind Zander.

  “This would be easier without you breathing down my neck,” Zander was saying. “Sit down.” He gave the command in a hard voice, an alpha Shifter expecting to be obeyed.

  Carson cast his gaze over the controls, looked again at the whirlpool beyond where Zander held the boat, and stamped over to a bench.

  “Stay down,” Carson snapped to his men as they came in behind Rae, the one who’d rushed to the bathroom finally catching up. The second man looked a little green, but he nodded and sat on the floor with his fellow, well out of Zander’s way.

  Rae took a seat on another bench but she couldn’t stay there. As Zander eased the boat forward, she moved quickly to him and settled in the copilot’s chair. Instead of admonishing Rae to take cover behind him, Zander reached for her hand and closed it in his.

  Strength came to her, warming Rae and bolstering her courage. Zander was right—why hide from the world and wait to be captured or die during that wait? Why not face life head on and go out fighting, like Shifters were meant to?

  Rae tightened her grip on Zander’s hand, and he shot her a hot smile. Heat twined her heart, wrapping it in tendrils that didn’t let go.

  Zander had to release her to pick up the radio and give Miles and Piotr coordinates and directions. When he clicked off Piotr’s protests and secured the mike in its slot, Zander took Rae’s hand again, kissing it briefly.

  “Ready, Little Wolf?”

  Rae couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face. “Sure am—Big-Ass Bear.”

  Zander laughed out loud. “You’re paying for that when we’re out of this. Here we go.”

  He throttled the boat forward, the engines throbbing as the vessel moved faster. And faster.

  Zander’s fingers bit down but Rae was holding on to him just as tightly. Zander lifted their twined hands high as the boat charged into the clear water and headed straight for the whirlpool.

  “Here comes the tricky part,” Zander yelled over the roar of the engines.

  He cranked the wheel opposite the spin of the vortex and gave the throttle still more speed. He steadied everything then dragged Rae off the seat and positioned her in front of him. “Hold on to that,” he said, closing her hand around the throttle. “It will try to fight you, but hold it steady.”

  Rae nodded, gripping it tightly. Zander had the wheel in both hands now, his body against hers, as they raced toward the whirlpool.

  Just as Rae thought they’d plunge straight into it, the boat caught on the whirlpool’s edge. The water shoved them sideways, slingshotting them past the dark hole in the center.

  Zander whooped. Rae yelled with him as the boat climbed the waves, their speed rushing them past the cliffs on the other side of the whirlpool, beyond which was open sea.

  Rae’s heart beat in exhilaration and the mad joy of it. They’d make it. Zander, the crazy idiot, was doing it. He’d be even more impossible to live with now.

  Just as Rae started to join in Zander’s laughter of celebration, the boat swung around and listed sharply into the whirlpool’s maw.

  “Shit,” Zander said, exuberance gone. “That should have worked.”

  “What do I do?” Rae shouted up at him, her hands locked around the throttle. “Ease back?”

  “No.” Zander’s command was harsh. “More power. We need to break free.”

  “No kidding.” A flash caught Rae’s eye. “Oh, hey, there goes Piotr.”

  Her heart squeezed in relief as Zander’s fishing boat soared away from the whirlpool and into the sunshine, leaving the deadly waters behind. Piotr, Mile
s, and Ezra were free, heading out to open sea.

  Zander spared a glance for it. “Thank the Goddess. Wait, what is he doing?” His eyes widened in rage. “Trying to come back for us?”

  “Zander!”

  Zander jerked his head around at Rae’s shout to see the mouth of the vortex yawn wider before them. “Give it some more!” he yelled to her. “I’m trying to turn. More, more.”

  Rae dragged on the throttle, which was trying to rip itself free of her hands, but the boat was giving all it had. Behind them, Carson snarled and swore but he didn’t move to stop them.

  On the windowsill, where it for some reason had stayed put, the Sword of the Guardian jumped. Not with the boat’s movement, but with impetus of its own. It leapt and clattered, then rang, its music shrilling even over the thunder of engines and the sea.

  “It’s anxious to stick itself inside us,” Zander said with grim humor. “Wants to dust us and get it over with.”

  Rae didn’t think so. She didn’t know how she knew what to do but she peeled one hand from the throttle and closed it over the sword’s hilt.

  The ringing soared, pounding at her eardrums with the intensity of a thousand bells. Zander winced, his shoulders jerking.

  “Make it shut up,” he yelled. “I want to die quietly.”

  They weren’t going to die that day—Rae suddenly knew that. She shook the top part of the sword free of the sheath.

  The blade flashed in the sunlight, jerking Rae so hard she lost hold of the throttle. The next moment, the sword slammed itself to the control board. Sparks leapt from the silver blade into the panel then arcs curved down into the vessel itself.

  The boat hurtled forward. It flew once around the whirlpool, then at the exact place were they had spun out of control, the boat broke free and sailed hard and fast into the flat water beyond. The momentum sent them past the cliffs and through the passage Piotr had taken.

  They shot from shadows into water bathed in sunlight. The Graveyard dropped abruptly to stern, the fog closed around its cliffs, and the sea calmed.