“Are you okay?” Mamoru asked sounding utterly exhausted.
“What the—” Tristan had to stop and clear his throat. It was all scratchy now from breathing water. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Trying to drown me?” There were more ill words for the Japanese man on Tristan’s tongue but fear had ceased its movement as he really saw his surroundings.
The small island they’d fallen asleep on was completely submerged under water by nearly six feet—just enough that Tristan couldn’t stand and breathe. There was a large hazy spot a few feet over where the remains of the charred jikininki tiger floated. And the vampires, they were still asleep, both floating face down at the far end of the cave.
Tristan panicked, accidently dunking himself and choking on the gasp he took as he went under before he remembered that vampires didn’t need to breathe. Still, Tristan was scared for them—well, Ash anyway. Fuck Desmond.
“What’s happening?”
Mamoru spit out a mouthful of water before answering, “I’m not sure. But the chamber is filling up with water.”
“How are we only just noticing if it’s this full already?”
The other man flushed slightly despite the paleness in his lips that said he was cold. “I was trying to let you sleep. The others won’t be awake until sunset and it seemed like you could use the rest… but you’ve been fighting me in your sleep. I couldn’t keep you above the water anymore.”
“Fighting?” Tristan asked, body tingling with something that had nothing to do with the cold. In fact, he was more than cold as he realized his lips were trembling ever so slightly.
“You have some strong, albeit, wild instincts.”
Tristan frowned, too unsure to even ask. “How long?” he asked with a nod towards the others, unable to bring himself to look.
“Soon.”
Tristan nodded, as much as he could anyway without dunking himself. And while he’d only been at it a few minutes, he knew they’d need to think of something fast because he wouldn’t be able to tread water for long. And he was cold.
“You’re right,” Mamoru said suddenly. “I… I don’t want to worry you but I think we might have a problem.”
Tristan snorted a rough laugh. “Worse than being trapped in a cave that’s filling up with water?”
Mamoru stabbed his lip with a fang and Tristan wondered if all vampires had the habit. He’d seen Ash do it enough times to think so anyway. “Ash is starting to wake and I’m not liking what I’m sensing from her.”
“What do you mean?” The words nearly found themselves stuck in Tristan’s throat at the fear carefully hidden under Mamoru’s Japanese accent.
“I don’t think she can use her seikonō, Tristan. I think whatever spell that she was hit with is still with her. Look at her… she still looks human.”
“Fuck,” he hissed and Mamoru nodded. “How do we break it?”
Mamoru’s brows rose high and the soft chattering of Tristan’s teeth was almost enough to deafen him from the man’s softly murmured, “We have the one who made it remove it.” He would keep the fear that the spell was permanent to himself for a little longer. Panic about it later.
“But Ash doesn’t know who…”
Mamoru only nodded and Tristan fell into a fit of turrets, head dipping under the water as he lost his focus on staying up. When he’d finished cursing he asked, “Okay. So then, how do we get out of here?”
The other man’s jaw stiffened. “You’re not going to like it…”
“Bloody right he’s no’!”
Tristan gasped, jerking around to look at the vampires. Desmond was fully awake, but Ash was still floating face down. A ball of worry lit in Tristan’s belly at the thought that if the spell put on her made her human, maybe she really was…
Desmond’s burst of laughter brought Tristan back to his senses and he scowled, realizing how insane that was. The vampire swiped a hand over his hair, pushing it out of his eyes and tisked, shaking his head as he reached for Ash. “Bloody bairn…” He took Ash by the shoulders and lifted her, righting her in the water. Tristan didn’t like the way the man was holding her, pressed against his front, arm possessively around her shoulder, making her chest touch his. The man shot Tristan the barest of smiles before turning his attention back to Ash, her head hanging back at a harsh angle.
Desmond gave her a little shake. “Oi, lassie.”
“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked when the vampire frowned deeply and Mamoru started to swim over.
“She’s not waking, is she?” Mamoru asked.
“No,” Desmond said in a cautious tone. “She doesn’t feel right.”
Mamoru stopped just out of reach of the vampires.
Tristan came up beside him. The little swim from fifteen feet away made him realize how much his body ached. The cold was setting in deep into his bones and making him sluggish. “What’s wrong with her?” he all but shouted.
“I think it’s the spell. It can’t be helped. The water is too cold for Tristan, we need to get him out of here.”
“I’m fine,” he said, aggressively pushing past Mamoru even as his teeth chattered. His fingers didn’t seem to want to work as he reached out. Desmond opened his mouth to argue when Tristan tried to take Ash from him but stopped and rolled his eyes, handing her over. Tristan gasped, taking them both under. He hadn’t realized how hard it would be to keep them both afloat and as he sputtered on the surface, he finally grasped the situation.
“Aye,” the Scot said as he took Ash back. “Had tae go and be all mine, dinnae think it through.”
Tristan spit out a mouthful of water, aiming for a certain vampire. “Go die again, Desmond, god.”
“Can we just focus on getting out of here?” Mamoru said, sounding on edge. “Desmond, how do you feel?”
“Right as bloody rain, mate. Thanks fur asking.”
The Japanese man scowled. Desmond knew exactly why he’d asked and was just being his usual pain in the ass self.
Desmond sighed. “Aye, it can be done. But might need a wee taste, yew ken, top off me tank, right?”
Mamoru grimaced but nodded his agreement.
“What are you two saying?”
Mamoru’s lips pursed in vexation. Tristan wasn’t going to like this… “Desmond can get us out, but…”
Tristan shot Desmond a look and the vampire grinned fangs at him, way too pleased with himself. “Just say it already.”
“Well, Desmond is a Master of considerable strength despite not leading his own following of scions…”
Christ, the foreplay was really starting to make Tristan tense. Or that could have been his mind confusing the numbness from the forty degree water.
“Desmond can fix a bubble of air around our head and help us swim out.”
Tristan jerked. “Do what? That sounds…”
“Crazy, I know. But it’s the only way.”
“No,” Tristan said, shaking his head, his wet hair snaking along the back of his neck feeling almost warm. “No, I don’t like this.”
“I can do it,” Desmond muttered.
“No, that’s just… it’s insane. It’s dark and we don’t know where we’re going, what if we run out of air before we reach the top?”
“Desmond can tell the water to do whatever he wants, he can gather bubbles of air from over a wide range and pool them to refresh our air, isn’t that right?”
“Said I could bloody do it,” he answered sounding irritated.
“Then why don’t you force the water in here to lower so we can sit on earth again and wait for Ash to wake?”
“She’s almost awake now, but it’s no bloody good, mate. She can’t pull on seikonō right now, not until this spell is broken. That earth isn’t moving under any of our commands.”
Tristan frowned. He wasn’t afraid of many things, but the possibility of getting lost in the dark, cold depths of an unknown cave and drowning did it for him. The fact that he was slowly succumbing to hypothermia hadn’t ev
en occurred to him. At least he’d be unconscious when he drowned, that was a surprising relief to him.
Desmond made a rude noise at him and grabbed for him. Tristan gasped, half the sound lost when he bobbed under. He meant to jerk away but with no leverage, there wasn’t far to go very fast.
“Dinnae be such a wet blanket, mate. Com’ere.”
Tristan’s frown turned into a look of surprise as his feet found purchase on a bit of rock jutting out the side of the cave wall, lifting him high enough that the water was only to his chest now. The air on his wet exposed skin felt a little hot. That worried the subconscious part of his brain. “Er… thanks.”
Desmond only gave him a sour look and then pushed Ash into his arms. “Right then, back in a tick, going tae have a wee look ‘round.”
Before the others could complain Desmond was gone in a rush of bubbles.
“Is he really going to come back?” Tristan asked, staring at the spot Desmond had disappeared from with wonder, his brain having a hard time translating what his eyes were taking in.
Mamoru sighed and swam over to find a place to stand too. “You know him better than I do.”
“Actually, I don’t. We’ve only ever bullshitted each other outside of a little tussle we had before Ash and I left Japan.” Far as Tristan was concerned they didn’t even have to go back to that place. He was more than willing to leave everything there behind if it meant he could rid himself of Yuki, Desmond and all of their little group.
“You fought… with Desmond? A real fight?”
Tristan smiled darkly. “I won.” Never mind that it was obvious Desmond wasn’t even trying, didn’t even whip out any seikonō. Tristan walked away smelling enough like the Scot that Audric of the House of Wind could smell Desmond all over Tristan and thought they were sleeping together. Still, it felt good to tag that big ape.
Mamoru frowned at him like he wasn’t sure he believed him and then made a little noise when Ash moved in Tristan’s arms. There was a collective held breath and then her eyes fluttered open.
She blinked up at Tristan and then slipped farther into his hold. “Tired,” she whispered, still trying to blink the sleep from her eyes. “So tried… and cold.” She stiffened then, looking around and seeing the room. “What is happening?”
Tristan sighed. It was Mamoru who gave her the gist of it. “The room is flooding. Desmond’s scouting the way out.”
“I see,” she said with a serious frown. “I cannot… I still feel human.”
The Japanese man nodded, inching his way closer to the couple. He may have been more than human, a strong awakened Uruwashi, but even he had limits and was starting to feel the cold. Just not as badly as Tristan was, apparently. “I… I’ve never heard of a spell like this before, I don’t know if Agamemnon can help.”
Ash frowned and turned her head to look up at Tristan again, brow knitted in worry. He looked cold. “How are you?”
“Fine,” he said through chattering teeth. He never really liked the cold, but had never really been cold. Not like this. Just breathing now set a deep ache in his body. He’d been in the water too long and was starting to shut down. Ash was close enough that she could feel just how cold he was and knew he couldn’t last long like this.
“We need to get out of here,” Mamoru said hurriedly.
Ash nodded, her eyes fixed on Tristan’s blue lips. Being part non-human helped him last this long in the cold water, but he was going down and fast. He was just too stubborn to admit it. He had thirty minutes tops before he lost consciousness and then after that, the chance of survival… A little sob slipped past Ash’s lips and she shifted in Tristan’s arms to put her feet down and held him around the waist.
“Hey,” he said in a voice he couldn’t keep even anymore as he shook violently. “I’ll be okay. I feel fine.”
Mamoru and Ash exchanged worried glances. Tristan couldn’t see his near vampire-pale skin, the deep blue setting into his lips, nearly a match to his eyes. He couldn’t feel the quake sending out small ripples from his body. He couldn’t feel the dead numbness in his limbs. That he was still standing on the rock was just rigor working for him.
He smiled at her, though it wasn’t as warm as he thought it was, and touched her mouth with a shaking finger. He pressed down enough that he could feel the outline of a fang. “Really, I’m fine. Not even that cold anymore.”
She stared at him a moment and then cursed in her native tongue. “Blasted all that I cannot read your mind!”
Tristan chuckled, his eyes fluttering shut as he rested his forehead against her. “Now you know how frustrating it is to be with you.”
She made a rude noise instead of laughing as she wanted in hopes of keeping him from looking up and seeing her tears. She turned her head to the side when he nuzzled his face into the crook of her neck.
“You’re so warm,” he whispered and Ash’s eyes widened, meeting Mamoru’s same worried expression. “You always smell good… makes me want to lick you. Do you taste like vanilla if I lick you?”
Ash actually blushed when Mamoru quirked a brow at her. The fact that she had a scent at all wasn’t what made him smirk, he knew why she smelled like anything while most other vampire didn’t, it was the thoughts behind Tristan’s words that Ash couldn’t hear. There was more than tasting her neck with his tongue in the American’s thoughts.
“Or bite you…,” Tristan breathed out and then took in a deep, deep breath. His lips, cold and stiff as they were, nudged her neck making her skin run with excited goose bumps. “Mmm, yum.” He let out another sigh and then gave her a little nip. “You remember that time in France, in the room when you jumped me? God, it was so hard to say no to you… I knew it so dangerous, that we shouldn’t.”
“Anō,” Mamoru interrupted softly, hoping to keep Tristan’s ramblings down. The man needed his strength.
“Yes?” she snapped hastily, understanding the reason for Mamoru’s hesitancy was going to upset her.
“Just, um, how human are you right now?”
“My body is still dead, if that is what you mean.” She realized then that she’d forgotten to breathe when she awoke, something she always did when conscious.
He shifted uncomfortably. This whole situation was unsettling, never something he’d have expected or even dreamed. “You should leave us then,” he said softly, knowing full well that they were going to die. Desmond had left them to die.
“Shh,” she cooed, running her hands up Tristan’s arms in a feeble attempt to keep him warm. They knew Tristan was on the edge. Her voice shook when she said to Mamoru, “I refuse to leave either of you to die alone.”
“Ash…”
“No. I will stay until it is over. If he is meant to die here, I will not let it happen alone.”
“I might be able to swim out,” Mamoru was saying, almost as if to himself. “But I can’t carry Tristan too.”
“Sharks,” Tristan suddenly said, eyes unfocused as they searched the water. “You think they can get in here? I can ride a shark out…” He chuckled. “That’d be awesome. Love sharks…”
Ash traced her fingers over Tristan’s face, memorizing him with her eyes and body. “I am partial to the Great White myself, beautiful creature…” Softer, to Mamoru she said, “I don’t think I can either.”
“We can watch shark week together,” Tristan said, oblivious to the situation anymore. “That’s some good television right there.”
Mamoru was looking at Tristan’s pallor. “You’ll really let him die?”
Tristan’s eyes flew open, held widely, fixed on Ash’s. “I’m going to die?” he whispered.
Ash bit her lip and nodded. “I would love to lie to you and say I could save you…”
“But you can’t,” Tristan whispered.
Ash and Mamoru exchanged a look. He hadn’t noticed that the water was higher.
“Even if you bit him right now, there’s no guarantee that he won’t need to breathe still… But there is one thing that migh
t help him survive the swim, help stabilize his system,” Mamoru was saying carefully. “If you gave him your—”
“Damare!” Ash all but screamed, making the others flinch. That flinch, it hurt Tristan’s whole body. Softer she added, “No. That is not an option right now, Mamoru, and do not speak of it ever again.” The look in her eyes, it was enough to take the words from his mouth, leaving him to nod.
She hated the very idea of it, remembered how Tristan had reacted when Yukihime slipped him her powerful, ancient blood. She remembered the fear she felt as she lay dying in that cell in France. But it wasn’t her fear, it was Lucien’s. She was conscious just enough to hear everything, even if her vision failed her.
Lucien was terrified of what he saw in Tristan when he drank down Ash’s blood. She’d felt that same fear in Japan when Tristan had attacked her in the shower. It changed the seemingly innocuous American and made him into something even darker than a vampire, because if he willed it, he could lead them to do whatever he wanted.
Ash had Yukihime erase every last thought in his head that lead to him drinking a vampire’s blood and the result. It wasn’t that she feared succumbing to the thing he’d become, but that she didn’t want to see it destroy Tristan. He begged to be bitten, to be allowed to become what he was meant to be but Ash saw the beauty in humanity. That alone was reason enough to preserve what Tristan was, a man. Just a man, one she loved deeply.
“What are you talking about?” Tristan muttered.
“Nothing, my love. It is nothing.” In low voice, she hissed, “Where the hell is Desmond?”
“He left us,” Mamoru said sadly. “It’s done.”
Tristan snorted a rude noise. “That man’s the King of Assholes but he wouldn’t leave us here to die.”
Ash knew Desmond more than Tristan, not that that was saying much, and she was sure they’d been left to die. “Why are you so certain?”
Oh good, the water’s warm again. Tristan took in a deep breath and let it out slowly across Ash’s neck. “Because he loves you.”
Moon Child Page 19
