by Ann Gimpel
She walked into those arms, and he dug his fingers into her thick, double coat, petting and smoothing her fur. “You are so lovely,” he murmured.
“Thank you,” her wolf spoke up. “I like your bird too. I’ve known it for a long time, and it chose well.”
“That’s a high compliment,” Ketha said.
Viktor nodded solemnly. “Thank you. I hope its confidence in me is justified, and I love it that we’re dual-natured. I had no idea I’d have a clear sense of myself while in shifted form.”
“Yes. We are always two, no matter which body we occupy,” Ketha murmured.
She stood still for several long moments while he ran his hands over her wolf’s body, almost as if worshipping it. She nuzzled the hollow of his shoulder and licked his chin.
“Are you sure you’re not cold?” Ketha asked.
“I’m freezing, but it’s worth every minute.” Viktor straightened. “Thank you for indulging me. I’m ready to find our pile of clothing.”
Ketha took off at a trot with him striding by her side. When they came within sight of the cypress grove, she shifted back and covered the last few yards with her bare feet crunching over sticks and rocks.
“Ouch.” She made a face.
Viktor snorted. “Yeah. Human bodies are damn fragile.” He pushed a welter of branches aside and motioned her inside, out of the wind.
She made a dive for her clothes and dressed hurriedly, layering tattered garments beneath her warm cloak. Viktor slid into his clothing too, topping off everything with his threadbare llama jacket.
“We should stop by the ship. I have lots of warm clothing there.”
“Maybe I could alter some things to fit me?” Ketha quirked a brow.
“There are garments that would work for you too. We provided polar gear for our passengers. It was part of the service.”
“Good to know. We’ll raid Arkady’s closets soon.”
He sat on the ground and rested his back against a twisted tree bole, patting the ground next to him. Ketha settled so she was leaning against him, and he draped an arm around her. “Thanks for not insisting on leaving right away. I’m selfish enough to want another few minutes with you.”
“Me too, but I feel guilty. There’s years of work left back in town, and we’re not going to stay that long.”
“We’ll stay long enough to see Ushuaia well on its way to supporting everyone who wishes to remain there.” He narrowed his eyes. “What happens to the Vamps who haven’t turned into Shifters?”
Ketha closed her teeth over her lower lip. “I wish I knew. The number is growing smaller. How many are left without bond animals?”
“Twenty, I think. They’re all pre-Cataclysm Vamps.”
She thought about it. “Did any of the older ones become Shifters?”
Viktor cocked his head to one side. “Now that you mention it, a couple dozen have.”
“Okay. So that’s not it. I was thinking maybe something about the earlier iteration of Vampire didn’t lend itself to becoming a Shifter, but that doesn’t make sense. The group in Siberia designed their spell to alter the original type of Vampire.”
“Do you suppose they’re still there?” Viktor asked.
“Who?”
“That group in Siberia?”
Ketha shrugged. “I have no idea, but if they are and I ever find the Shifters responsible for the Cataclysm, I’ll see they’re dragged before our council—if we even still have one—and censured.”
He placed his hands on both sides of her face and smoothed his thumbs over her mouth. “Uh-uh. Way too far ahead of the game. We take this one step at a time. It will take years to sail around the world and figure out what’s left. Back to the unbonded Vamps. Do you believe they’ll find animals eventually?”
Ketha turned the question inward and asked her wolf, “What do you think?”
“The reason they’re not paired with an animal is because they’re not open to the bond. We never force our way in.”
She nodded. It made sense. “Did you hear that?” she asked Viktor.
“I did. Many of those old Vampires—or ex-Vampires—are hundreds of years old. They liked being Vamps. They’re probably in mourning rather than looking forward.”
“Maybe so. How’s Juan taking to his mountain lion?”
Viktor angled his head and nuzzled her neck. “Like a duck to water. All the Vamps I knew well enough to do more than flip them off are delighted. Maybe we all had closet fantasies of having an animal sidekick as children. It’s funny.”
“What is?”
He twisted a corner of his mouth into a wry grin. “When I knew I’d become a Shifter because I felt an animal lurking, I assumed I’d be a wolf like you.”
Ketha cocked her head to one side. “Were you disappointed?”
“That’s the funny part. Quite the opposite. When my raven finally showed up front and center in my mind’s eye, it was love at first sight.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Kind of like it was with you. From the moment I saw you, something changed in me. From the moment I met my bond animal, I understood it was the only one for me.”
“And you welcomed it with your heart, mind, and soul.” She stroked copper hair back from his face.
“Exactly. It was like a lock and key finding each other. Or puzzle pieces clicking into place and showing me the way to be whole.” Color rose from the neck of his jacket, staining his tanned skin. “I’m babbling.”
“Babble away.” She kissed him once, quick and hard, and then got to her feet.
Viktor scrambled upright. “You’re right. Much as I’d love to hold the world at bay, we should get moving. I love you, Ketha.”
“Love you too. You’re such a beautiful man. I thought maybe when the Vampire enchantment faded, some of that gorgeousness would dwindle, but it hasn’t.”
He walked by her side, and they left the protected grove. Wind hit them full in the face as soon as they turned south toward town, so she set a good pace.
“Would that have mattered?” he asked.
She glanced at him. “What?”
“If I’d turned into an ordinary sod.” He grinned rakishly, making him so stunning she had a hard time looking away. A near stumble over a pile of tree roots redirected her gaze.
“I like to think I’m not that shallow,” she mumbled. “Your eye candy looks are a plus, but I fell in love with your soul. For chrissakes, you were a Vampire when I met you—Shifters’ sworn enemies—and I still couldn’t reel in my longing.”
“Did you try?” The corners of his mouth twitched as though he was trying not to laugh.
“Not very hard. Don’t get me wrong. I love it that you’ve joined the Shifter ranks, but it wouldn’t have mattered if you were still a Vamp. We’d have figured things out.”
He laced his fingers with hers. “That we would. And that was the right answer, by the way. Where do you want to go first when we get back?”
She thought about it. “Let’s stop by my old room and see if any of the Shifters are about. Bet they’ll have a project list cooking.”
Viktor laughed. “Juan accused me of being a taskmaster, but I swear Rowana must have been a drill sergeant in a previous life.”
Ketha laughed too. “She did a stint in the Marines. You should ask her about it sometime.”
She squeezed Viktor’s hand. With him by her side and her wolf within, her world was damn near perfect. What lay beyond Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel might be a shambles, but they’d figure it out as they needed to. The worst was behind them.
It had to be.
Chapter Twenty-One: Into the Unknown
Two months later
Ketha navigated Arkady’s steep steps to the quarterdeck wearing oversized men’s clothing left over from the ship’s previous crew. The mud-colored parka was warm and functional. So were the black insulated bibs and green Pac boots. She’d been grateful for the selection of cold weather clothing aboard the vessel. The crew’s clothing was a definite st
ep up from outdoor duds meant for the ship’s passengers, which was why she’d opted for items that didn’t fit as well but were far better constructed.
They’d fixed a lot of what was wrong in Ushuaia, but things like raw materials to sew clothing had been in short supply. The city wasn’t totally resurrected, but it had a functioning water system, sewer system, and electricity. Delighted to be free from the Vampire scourge, humans emerged from hiding and worked like demons, helping set the city to rights.
Juan had been right about Viktor being a dogged worker. He’d gone without sleep many nights as he worked out how to restore Ciudad de Huesos to a habitable place. The piles of bones had been moved and incinerated, the streets swept clean. Minus the stacks of skeletons, the city’s grim nickname had fallen out of use.
She and the Shifters—including the newly bonded ones—had helped with magic, but also with their brains and muscles. Though they’d tried, they hadn’t been able to determine if the Cataclysm still wreaked havoc elsewhere on the globe. Satellites and cell towers appeared to be a thing of the past. No Internet. No landlines. No radio or any type of broadcast. Once they’d repaired the power plants to produce electricity, they’d tried every avenue to communicate with the rest of the world.
Nothing worked.
Her eleven sisters were aboard Arkady with her and Viktor. Juan, Recco, and Daide had joined them as well. Good thing, because a ship as substantial as Arkady needed crew. Even with sixteen of them, they were shy manpower.
Glenn had reunited with Bridget, and the two of them had hooked up with others in Ushuaia and were playing music every chance they got. All in all, the world was shading back to normal. At least at the southern end of South America.
Arkady’s fuel tanks were full, courtesy of storage chambers in the dry dock, but taking her into blue water was still an unknown. She’d asked Viktor, and he’d said full tanks meant a thousand tons of diesel. Enough to travel from where they were to the Arctic, with fuel left over. They also had desalinization equipment aboard, capable of producing fifteen to twenty tons of freshwater a day.
Footsteps clattered down metal risers leading from the deck immediately above. Viktor trotted toward her, a broad smile on his face. He was wrapped in a thick down parka, but its hood was back, and his tawny hair streamed behind him, tossed by the salt spray.
He inhaled noisily. “Love that smell. It was one of the worst things about the Cataclysm. The ocean didn’t smell right anymore.” He wound an arm around her and kissed her forehead.
“Worse than being a Vampire?” She angled her head so she could look at him.
He made a face. “No. That was worse. I didn’t realize how much I hated it until...” His voice petered out.
“Until what?”
Viktor shrugged. “It was complicated. If I’d owned my anger and resentment, I’d have had to do something about it. I was getting closer, though. The night I left you aboard Arkady, I headed straight to Raphael’s. I made certain he had the saber before we left his quarters because I planned to kill him. Jorge stole my thunder, though.”
“Yeah, and we know how well that turned out.” Ketha leaned into him. “We can put all that behind us. No more Vampires. Shifter magic is back in spades, but we can’t grow complacent. Something evil will show up to balance our power, and we need to be ready for it.”
“We will be.”
He looked so fierce and so protective, happiness beat a path through her. “On a far more pleasant note, how are things going with your brand-new bondmate?”
A broad grin split his chiseled features. “Someone somewhere must have known I’ve always loved birds, but my raven is amazing. It’s perceptive, and it fulfilled one of my earliest wishes.”
“Flight?” She quirked a brow.
He nodded. “Yup. I always wanted to leave Earth behind. I used to pilot small aircraft, but this is a thousand times better.”
Ketha grinned back. “I’m glad. I kept my mouth shut, but your bonding process had more than a few rough edges in the beginning.”
“I noticed. Why was that?”
“Lots of reasons. Shifters usually dream their animals as children and have years to get to know them. Part of you may have wanted a bond animal, but another part was reticent. Understandable since you were forced into being a Vampire.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I couldn’t do much. No one can assist another’s bond.”
“What you did was perfect, encouraging me to embrace my fate, no matter how it played out. Once I stopped trying to control every last nuance, the raven popped into my head, told me to get rid of my clothes, and there we were, flying above the mesa.” Wonder spilled from him, scattering Shifter magic.
Ketha laughed. “I remember. I was working on cooking a passel of fish for dinner when this enormous raven landed right next to me and pecked me with its beak.”
“You didn’t shoo it away,” he pointed out.
“Only because I figured it was hungry,” she countered.
“’Fess up.” He smoothed her windblown hair out of her eyes. “You knew it was me.”
“I may have.” She winked. “I’ll never tell.”
“In a more serious vein, how are the other women doing? Everyone’s animals are hale and hearty from what I can tell.”
Ketha chewed on her lip. “The younger ones are bouncing back faster from all the years we didn’t have enough of anything. Rowana and Karin were around fifty to my thirty-five when we first came to Ushuaia. If they hadn’t been Shifters, they might not have survived.”
“Will they be all right?” Concern shone from the depths of Viktor’s green eyes, and she loved him for his kindheartedness.
“I think so. We all will be, given a bit more time.” She switched topics. “You seem happy. Really happy. You’re well-bonded, but it feels deeper than that.”
“I am happy. We’ve only been at sea for a day, but this is my home. Having you—and my bondmate—to share it with makes it all the better.”
“Aw, bet you say that to all the girls. And ravens.”
“Nope. Only to you.” He smiled shyly. “I’ve never had a wife before. It was generous of that human to marry us. He knew what I’d been but didn’t hold it against me.”
“We’re even. I’ve never had a husband, either.” She liked the sound of the word as it rolled off her tongue, so she repeated it. “Husband.”
“There’s an echo in here.” He kissed her lightly, and she tasted salt spray on his lips.
“Speaking of the Reverend Moore, I’m grateful enough humans remained to rebuild the town.”
“I had no idea there were so many left,” Viktor replied. “You guys did a great job hiding them.”
Ketha laughed. “They hid bunches of their numbers from us too. Wily lot, humans. Guess they weren’t certain we wouldn’t turn against them if it came to an out-and-out confrontation with the Vampires. And they certainly never revealed their youngsters. I had no idea they were still producing children.”
“Captain. You’re needed on the bridge.” Juan’s voice blared over the loudspeaker system.
“They’re singing my song.” Viktor hooked an arm through hers. “Care to join me?”
“Sure.” She moved ahead of him and mounted the stairs to the next deck up. The bridge was one deck beyond. “In the absence of satellites,” she called over a shoulder, “how are we navigating?”
“The old-fashioned way. Every sailor has a sextant, and I’m no exception. The electronics that paint the bottom so we don’t pitch up on underwater rocks are still quite functional. Plus, I know these waters. I’ve sailed from Ushuaia to Antarctica and the Falklands hundreds of times.”
She topped out on the sixth deck and pulled open the door leading into the glassed-in bridge. Juan stood behind a large mahogany wheel.
“What’s up?” Viktor asked.
Juan pointed at clouds bubbling on the horizon. “Weather’s coming in. Which way do you want to head?”
“Now that’
s what I miss satellites for,” Viktor told Ketha and strode to Juan’s side. “What do you think?” he asked his navigator.
“It’s a crapshoot. We could angle across the Scotia Sea for the Falklands and South Georgia, or we could cross the Drake for the Palmer Peninsula. Both places have deserted whaling stations and research outposts—and probably stores of diesel to power Arkady. Not that we’ll need to refuel anytime soon...”
Ketha listened as the men discussed the pros and cons of their options. She’d figured they’d head north, mostly because she wanted to go home, but Viktor had convinced her they were better off staying close to a place he was familiar with—and gradually increasing their range. It made sense, so she’d agreed. Besides, they couldn’t sail to Wyoming. And none of them had any idea what they’d find in San Francisco or Seattle or any of the other port cities on the west coast of the United States.
Viktor was wise to counsel expanding their range slowly. If the Cataclysm still reigned in other places, it would be out for revenge and hell-bent on their destruction. She ground her teeth together, hoping they’d never have to duplicate the battle that had nearly been the end of them.
“Ketha.” Viktor’s voice broke into her thoughts.
She walked to where he stood behind the wheel. “Uh-huh?”
“I’m taking over here for a little bit. It’ll be dinnertime soon. Feel like getting some chow online for everyone?”
“Sure. I’ll rustle up a couple of the other women. Good thing the galley was well stocked.”
Juan tossed his head back and laughed. “Doubly good that shit in cans never goes bad.”
“Don’t forget the dried food,” she shot back, thinking about rice and noodles and flour and sugar in fifty-gallon drums. “Shit! If the humans had gotten wind of all the food you had stored on Arkady, they’d have broken into that dry dock and robbed you blind.”
“They’d have tried,” Viktor countered. “The galley was locked. They’d have had a hell of a time getting into it. Now, you Shifters would’ve been a different matter, but you never suspected it existed.”
