Fighting to keep her nightmares at bay, she embraced her solution. Not wasting a second of her head start, staying submerged, she pulled through the water with all her strength. She knew she was a strong swimmer when her treacherous mind didn’t abandon her. Although the thought of going deeper was terrifying, she was determined to even the field by not being the only one out of her depth.
Through the water filling her ears she heard unmistakeable plunging sounds some distance behind her. Her would-be assailants had followed her in. She must stay hidden, and be faster.
She should be able to reach the deeper rocks first. They should follow. If she could lose them among the rocks, she would have a shot at a clear run straight back to Ciarlan Cove.
And if she drowned trying, well – there were worse things than drowning. Not that she had any intention of giving in to either.
All too soon her lungs protested. Heart pounding, she kicked towards the light. Her face broke the surface. Gasping and blinking, eyes smarting, she peered back at the now empty rock she’d leapt from. She couldn’t see the boys, but she knew that heading straight back to the Cove now was to risk them intercepting her. Instead, staying on the surface for speed she made for the scattered rocks marked by impacting spray.
Soon the rocks rose above her, black and glistening, heaving skeins of kelp. The water surged and fought with itself, channelling between closely clustered rocks, sucking back around behind the large ones. She began to navigate them, fighting the push and pull, her skin brushing slick kelp. Her legs grew heavy, and fear gnawed despite her intense focus.
Rounding the furthest rock her heart leapt with hope – her path to the beach was clear. This could really work. For a moment the water sank, drawing her with it. Then it surged beneath her, raising her up on a swell. She heard a shout of recognition.
Panic bolted through her. The swell crested, becoming a wave that crashed over her, forcing her down into familiar darkness. Her head filled with the sound of roaring water, coming from everywhere at once. She was lost, alone in the dark, searching for her mother. Would her father never find them?
Her head broke the surface, tangled hair covering her eyes. She gulped in air, dazed and disoriented, kicking feebly, trying to keep her face above water.
“Hey baby... Miss me?”
A scream forced its way out in a strangled choke. Reality flooded back. She was so present it hurt. Her nightmare flashback couldn’t have come at a worse time, immobilising her.
“Thought you couldn’t swim?” The apparent leader of the pair ‘tut-tutted’, savouring the game as Skye fought terror. Then with sickening horror she realised that the two young men, taller than her, stood comfortably on a seabed her tiptoes barely scraped. She was much closer to Ciarlan Cove than she’d realised. But not close enough. They could do this for ever, whereas her flailing limbs felt shaky and numb as shock and weariness took hold.
“What say we cut the bullshit?” The spokesman moved casually towards her, the hungry tension in his face giving lie to his easy movements. His silent friend, wearing a creepy sketch of everything a smile shouldn’t be hovered at his shoulder, his eyes mostly fixed on her face, occasionally darting nervously around.
Adrenaline surged through Skye, so fiercely she could taste it. A buzzing heat replaced her shaky numbness. Hell No. Hell no. This was not happening, not ever, not without a fight. She would kick them where it hurt, scratch them until they bled. Mark them so it showed, even if there was nothing else she could do. At least she could pick them out of a line-up if she ever made it back to shore. She screwed her hands into claws to do what damage she could.
Then beneath the water something grazed her leg. Despite what she was already facing, or maybe because of it, an inarticulate cry burst out of her. Shark.
“Don’t be like that,” the guy smiled. “You’ll like it, I promise. Believe me?”
Then he yelled too. “Quit fooling, Stevie!” He glared around at his companion and then looked extremely disconcerted as he saw that Stevie was still a few feet away from him.
“What? What, Mark?” Stevie looked uneasily about. Skye’s sick anticipation of a shark attack increased as she realised Mark had felt something in the water too.
She hoped with all her heart that it would start with them. She’d happily let them be savaged if it meant she could escape. Then a scream burst out from her chattering lips as Mark threw up his arms, his face terrified as he disappeared, his cry choked off.
Stevie yelled incoherently, staring horrified at where Mark had been, before throwing himself towards Ciarlan Cove, thrashing uselessly in his hurry. He didn’t get far, bleating out a strangled cry that was cut off as he disappeared beneath the surface.
Skye’s whole body pulsed with terror. She stared around at the ordinary sea for a tell-tale crimson bloom, while at the same time her mind resisted what had just happened. This was all a sick joke. They’d never meant to hurt her, and this was the punch-line. But the surface remained empty, and all her mind began to anticipate razor-sharp teeth on her flailing legs. She had to get to shore. She allowed herself to sink for a brief second and pushed off from the seabed.
But her forward movement halted as she caught a flicker of shadow moving in front of her again. She released the breath she’d been holding with a ragged whimper. It was so close. Too close, closer. But it was the wrong shape, the wrong colour. A form materialised in front of her.
Between Skye and safety, a blond head rose from the water. She stared at the angelic face, the blue eyes fixed on hers. Where had he come from? Her momentary relief stuttered, apprehension twisting in her gut.
Instinctively turning away, she flinched, inhaling sharply as another face, a lovely girl with dark auburn hair and blank eyes rose up beside her. Unaccountably frightened, Skye swung the other way and heaved a shuddering sob when another boy, his brown hair shoulder-length, blocked her way. And as she floundered, she saw that a group of teenagers now surrounded her, watching her intently. The group, some so bizarrely clothed, that she’d seen before.
Her heart thudded sickly. She tried to tell herself that nothing bad had happened. That nothing bad would happen. Feeling as if the strain in her arms and legs was about to give way, she faced the blond boy. The most direct path to safety lay past him.
She met his eyes, and he smiled, murmuring invitingly, “Come with me.” A frighteningly sweet quivering rippled through her.
“Come with...what?” Her head reeled dizzily, her words thick in her mouth. Her suddenly heavy eyelids closed as echoes of “come with me” rolled through her dazed brain. She floated free of effort.
But when she forced her eyes open once more, the boy jerked his head away from her as if hearing something she couldn’t. His lips drew back from white teeth in a snarl of frustration as his companions sank below the surface. Lingering an instant longer, his gaze an unwelcome caress, he whispered, “Next time”. Then he was gone, a swirl of eddying water the only indication of the speed in which he had left.
Whatever had kept Skye buoyant vanished, and coldness seeped into her, the water so heavy it dragged her beneath the surface, grey breakers surging through her mind. But as she weakly kicked, her foot connected with a submerged rock. The agonising pain brought her sharply back to herself, and she got her head above the surface again. Tentatively she sought the submerged rock with her stinging toes. Managing to gain a shaky foothold on it she stood, wobbly on aching legs, the waterline dropping to her shoulders.
Scrubbing at her eyes, she looked around. What had just happened? Echoes of come with me whispered through her mind, and she hunched forward, tying to keep her chin above water as nausea roiled through her.
Then like a nightmare that wouldn’t end, a short distance ahead of her, Mark and Stevie resurfaced. Her flight from them returned in chilling detail.
Spluttering and choking, they peered around dazedly, clutching their stomachs as though ill. She had to take advantage of – of what, she didn’t know. But she
recognised a window of escape, and threw herself towards Ciarlan Cove.
But even as she pushed off, they saw her. Her arms beat the water in desperate free stroke as they moved to block her path, forcing her to a halt. This time her feet found the seabed and she stood, raising shaky hands to fend them off.
“Now, where were we?” Mark’s bewildered expression had transformed into another, horribly familiar.
But as they stepped towards her, like déjà vu a shadow appeared in the water between them. She stared at it mesmerised, so overwrought she was beyond emotion. Her would-be attackers’ smiles vanished. Silently they all watched the figure take form and rise to stand between them like a barrier of protection.
Hunter.
17. Find Me
Once again, Hunter had appeared out of nowhere. Looking only at Skye, he ignored the startled muttering of the others, holding her gaze as if only she existed. As if the overwhelming threat was invisible to him. His stillness and the intensity of his eyes, like light on a winter ocean, made her feel he held her in the calm eye of a storm. And somehow his solemn face, the expression in his eyes, told Skye he knew exactly what was happening, and that he had her back.
“You – came back,” she stammered, relief flooding her like a drug.
“Yes.” There was a weight of meaning behind that single word. “You noticed I left?”
“Yes.”
The corner of his mouth lifted for a moment, and he raised a slender wet hand to ease the tangled hair from her face, and gently tucked it behind her ear. Her shivering dissipated, her heart taking up a rapid beat that was the opposite of the thudding fear of only moments ago. At the same time, she registered that he looked…furious.
“Block your ears.”
When she looked blankly at him, he leaned close to her. His breath cold against her ear, he repeated “Don’t listen. Block your ears, this isn’t for you.” He watched as in a daze she lifted her hands out of the water and pressed fingers to her ears. Apparently satisfied with that, Hunter turned his head toward the now silent guys for the first time, turning his body like a shield between them and Skye.
Skye couldn’t see much of his face any more, but she had a clear view of theirs. They looked as dumbstruck as she felt. Then she heard Hunter’s voice, muffled beyond clarity by her pressing hands.
A strange sense of being drawn, compelled towards something filled her, and she wanted desperately to make out what he was saying. She watched their faces become slack, their eyes growing blank and glazed. Without looking at her, they turned as one for distant Bascath Beach. And without looking back they pushed their way slowly through the deepening water until they began to swim.
Skye looked at Hunter as he turned to her. Despite his dark expression, his touch was gentle when he tugged her wrist. She dropped her hands, noticing that the compelling urge towards something had melted away.
“What happened? What did you say?” She felt foolish and vulnerable.
“I just…suggested they leave. Not sorry are you?”
“Are you kidding? They were jerks! I was – it was…that could have got really…uh…”
His face softened. “Here, I know you’re tired.” He took her hands, ducking and turning beneath her arms. Placing her hands on his shoulders, he began to tow her towards the outcrop.
There didn’t seem to be anything to say so she just clung on to him, her legs trailing in his wake. She closed her eyes, and her head spun in a dark kaleidoscope of horrible images, and whispered words she couldn’t quite catch. She quickly opened them again, focusing on Hunter, the way his hair hung in twists on the back of his neck, and how cold his skin felt beneath her already cold hands. But soon her thoughts narrowed to one thing: how safe she felt with him.
The journey that had felt like hours to her such a short time before passed ridiculously fast, and in minutes Hunter was steadying her shaky climb up the higher dry rocks of the outcrop. Skye sank down and wrapped her arms around her legs, pressing her head to her knees, feeling one with the solid dry land she swore she would never, ever leave again.
“What am I to do about you?” Hunter murmured. She lifted her head and looked at him. The angles and hollows of his face were made even more dramatic by the fading light, the sinking sun hidden by cloud once more. Skye’s brain moved in fits and starts. In the tense quiet she registered her dress clinging to her like a second skin, and self-conscious awkwardness joined her chaotic mix of emotions.
He studied her face for a long moment, then, “I suggest you take the land path back to your friends.” He turned away towards the waves sweeping the rocks below.
“Wait!” She scrambled to her feet. “Please... Wait.”
He turned towards her again and her heart quickened at the expression in his eyes. She hadn’t known what she wanted to say. Only that she didn’t want him to leave.
“Um, what you do. Is this part of it? The – the predator thing?”
He nodded. “Yes, partly. I…find them. Stop them if I can.” He spoke casually, but she heard underlying menace in his voice. “I was so…angry you could be hurt – that you’d put yourself in harm’s way,” Hunter said, stepping closer to her.
Her mind cleared, focusing sharply on his words. “I wasn’t ‘putting myself’ in harm’s way.” He was blaming her? “What is this – it’s always the girl’s fault? I was ‘asking for it’?” Anger kept her head high, but she glared at him through tears.
Hunter stared, stricken. In an instant he had reached her, and, surprising her, wrapped his arms about her, pressing his cheek to the top of her head. His closeness was overwhelming. She could feel his heart beating, a stronger echo of her own which was racing. Instinctively her arms crept around him. His skin was so cold.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. That wasn’t your fault, any more than…” His cheek moved against her head when he spoke, and she could feel the vibrations of his voice through his chest. “None of it was your fault. It’s just…” He held her tighter and spoke against her wet tangled hair, so softly she could barely make the words out. “What if I’d been too late?” After a silence he added “Do you remember what happened?”
“There were two guys, Ethan’s friends.”
“Yes?”
“I was getting away from them. And then –” But once again, her thoughts seemed to slip across empty space. She pulled back so she could see his face. “I don’t remember.” She frowned. “Something happened...” He’d saved her from certain harm, she knew it in her very core. Part of it was a blur. But she remembered him rising like a knight between her and her enemies. “You sent them away. I – thank you.” His skin felt a little warmer against hers.
Straightening his arms, he held her by her shoulders at arm’s length, searching her eyes. “I felt your fear, and it made me... You’re so vulnerable out there. You don’t realise just how much. That isn’t your element. It isn’t their element, and still they brought their danger to you there. I could happily have killed them. But I was wrong to be angry with you.”
She flinched at the way he’d said ‘killed’. Like it was a perfectly viable option.
“You in danger – it scares me.” His low voice was fierce, “I won’t let anything harm you, ever.”
It reminded her of the way he’d spoken, such similar words, when they’d first met, like a vow. She heaved a shuddery sigh, feeling like a child. “I thought you’d gone. For good.”
“So did I.” He surprised her by stepping to a nearby rock and sitting. He gestured to the space beside him. Feeling as surreal as the first time she’d done this, she perched beside him.
“I thought that for you, avoiding the water meant avoiding danger. But I can see I was wrong.” His eyes ran over her neck as if he was searching for something, and she unconsciously put her hand to her bare throat.
“You and the sea, ‘not so good with it.’” He quoted. “Maybe you need to become better with it? Even...good with it?” He sighed, releasing a tense breath, searchin
g the darkening water. “Your trouble with the sea, being in it. Something happened to make you feel that way?” Although his posture was casual, his voice was careful.
Skye was taken aback. This was what he wanted to talk about? “Yes. Something happened.” But as she tried to begin, it caught in her throat. She looked up at him. There it was again, the certainty she could trust him. She took a shaky breath. “My…my mum died here, I think. She went into the sea one stormy day and…and never came out again. Ever. So…I guess…” She glanced away for a few moments. “I kind of have nightmares about it. And they seem to affect me. In my waking life, I mean.”
“Nightmares?” His husky voice was low.
“Yeah. It’s like I relive how it must have been for her that day. The feelings, the images – they’re so real – so intense, it’s like I’m there.” Skye drew in another careful breath. “But the weird thing is I also have this…this kind of longing for the sea. Which makes no sense. It’s as though I want what will hurt me. What has hurt me. I guess that could be because before Mum drowned, all my happiness was connected to the sea. Just like her.”
“Your mother –” he stopped, clearly disturbed by what she’d just told him. She bit her lip. This was why she never talked about it.
“You must miss her terribly, Skye. I’m very sorry for your loss.” The words were formal but it was clear he meant them, despite how obviously uncomfortable she’d made him. As if confirming his discomfort, he stood, looking away from her. “You need to leave, Skye.”
She was being dismissed, again. She stood too, determined not to just give in. “Don’t you mean we should leave? Won’t you walk me back?”
His expression closed in, and he took a step back. “I can’t. I’m going a different way.”
He could let her go off on her own? Really. Just like that?
Find Me (Immersed Book 1) Page 14
