by Lauren Esker
"Don't fall all over yourselves with gratitude. Additionally, you shouldn't have to worry about that Marius individual in Room 12 anytime soon." Roxy picked up a croissant and took a large bite.
"Please tell me you didn't kill him," Jen said with mounting horror.
"No, just gave him other things to worry about. Also," Roxy said around another bite of the croissant, "you need to be in the lounge for the next game at 11:45 in the morning. Don't stay up too late."
"Thanks for the curfew, Mom!" Lucky called after her.
They took their coffee out to the balcony and leaned on the railing. There was a brilliant, nearly full moon, glimmering on the wavetops and lighting a shimmering wake behind the ship. The air was notably warmer than yesterday, almost comfortable despite the late hour and the wind of their passage whipping by.
"If Angel was manipulating Yegerev, would he know it?" Jen asked quietly.
"Not necessarily. Angel's range for direct control is limited, but he can plant suggestions and make them stick. He can make people forget things, or think whatever they're doing was their idea in the first place."
"Yegerev might have been innocent, then."
"Oh, he definitely wasn't innocent." Lucky gave a slight shudder. "I don't think there was one person at that table whose hands were clean. Keep in mind who we're working for."
"Yes, but that doesn't make it all right for Roxy to torture a guy for something that wasn't his fault."
"It's only a theory," Lucky pointed out. "The whole thing could've been Yegerev's idea in the first place."
"Either way—" She broke off and tilted her head. "What was that?"
"What was what?"
"There's something going on down there." Jen leaned over the railing.
The side of the ship stretched behind them, broadside to the moon. A few rooms back and one level below them, something was happening on a Deck B balcony. It looked like several people were—dancing? No. Struggling. Someone gave a yell, which was abruptly muffled.
"What are they doing?" Jen asked, leaning so far over the railing that she lost her grip on her coffee cup. It tumbled out of sight, a tiny white glimmer in the moonlight. Littering was the least of her problems at the moment, though.
"Looks like somebody is resolving their differences Roxy-style." Lucky gripped the back of her sweater. "You're going to fall off."
"I am not. Let go." She needed to be able to see, although it was starting to look like all she could do was get herself a ringside seat for a case of frontier justice. Two of the bigger people on the balcony had another one held between them, and the one that seemed to be the ringleader drove a fist into the victim's stomach, doubling him over.
"Hey, I know that big guy." Lucky leaned over her. "He was at the game today. He had a fight with—"
Just then, the victim straightened up and the moonlight caught his face. Even from here, Jen recognized him. It was Marius.
"No way. Damn it, Roxy! I think I just figured out how she decided to solve our Marius problem." She clutched the railing helplessly. If only she had her gun, or her badge. She was tempted to shout at them to stop, at least letting them know there were witnesses, but she couldn't imagine it would do anything except make them drag their victim inside the room, where they could do whatever they wanted.
"That guy thought he was cheating," Lucky said. "Actually it was sort of me."
"Sort of you?"
"That luck thing I told you about? When I'm using it a lot, it also seems to affect people around me. Except with a lot less precision."
"So they think he was counting cards or something?"
"Looks like they're pissed about it, too."
"And I'm the one who gave Roxy his room number. We can't just stand here and let them beat him up. Hey!" Jen shouted. The wind snatched her voice and carried it away. "Hey, you! Knock it off! We're going to report this!"
There was a sudden flurry of activity among the people on the balcony. They weren't dragging Marius inside, though. They were hauling him to the railing.
"Oh shit," Lucky said, his voice hushed.
"Stop!" Jen screamed. "Stop, I'm—" No, she couldn't threaten to arrest them; she'd blow her cover, and besides, she had no actual jurisdiction here. Though, witnessing an attempted murder—
Or an actual murder. Acting in tandem, the toughs upended Marius over the railing. He didn't even have a chance to scream. Jen stared in open-mouthed horror as the tiny figure dwindled in the moonlight. She couldn't see him hit the water; he was lost in the churning white-topped eddies around the ship's hull.
"Lucky, go find a crew member. Tell them there's a man overboard." She toed off her shoes and started to climb up on the railing.
"Hey! Stop!" Lucky seized her arm. "What are you doing?"
"This is my fault. I can't let it happen." And just as important, as a sworn officer of the law, she couldn't stand by and watch someone drown.
Oh, that was going to be a long fall, though.
"Wait—" Lucky began, but she squirmed out of his grasp and slipped over the railing, feet down.
She covered her mouth and nose with one hand, and made her body straight and rigid, falling feet-first with her muscles clenched to help absorb the shock of impact. Still, she smacked into the water like hitting concrete. The shock dazed her and then the dark water closed over her head. Instinct kicked in; she thrust with her arms and legs, and drove herself toward the surface, following the rush of bubbles as her lungs released their burden of air.
Her head broke the surface. The side of the ship rose above her like a moonlit cliff. All around her, the water was churned into roiling turbulence by the ship's passage. She stroked away hastily. The last thing she wanted was to be sucked into the ship's turbines.
"Marius!" she shouted.
There was no answer. She scanned the wavetops, seeing nothing but the reflection of the moon and the ship's lights.
He might have been knocked unconscious when he hit. Or, no, it was worse than that—replaying those moonlit glimpses in her head, she guessed from the way he'd been moving as he struggled that his hands were most likely tied. That's what I'd do, if I were trying to drown somebody. Which meant he would even now be sinking deeper into the black water, conscious and alive, but unable to swim ...
A thought occurred to her. She dove under the surface, kicking down as hard as she could, with her eyes open wide. It was too dark to make out anything other than vague shapes, but the subtle tingle of shifter kinship ought to let her know she was on the right track, if she did manage to spot him—
There.
She stroked for that elusive flash of recognition, but had to pop up to the surface to take another breath. It had been way too long since she'd done any swimming except occasional laps in the pool at her favorite gym. When she got back to Seattle, she was definitely going to suggest deep-water rescue courses for everybody. Orca shifter Eva was their usual diver but, as this assignment had made abundantly clear, backup could be thousands of miles away.
She panted in and out with deep breaths, oxygen-loading her body until she was lightheaded, and then let the water close over her head.
She scanned the dark water, starting to panic before she caught the trace she assumed was Marius. There he was. Deep. Very deep. She was going to have to let out her breath to get down that far. Could she even get back up to the surface, burdened with another person who probably wouldn't be able to help her?
I live on danger. Danger is my middle name. Jennifer "Danger" Cho.
She arced her body like a dolphin and kicked down.
Down. Down. The water's resistance and her body's natural buoyancy—such as it was; being more muscle than fat, she tended to sink, but not usually this far—tried to push her back up. She blew out her breath in measured sips, bubbles streaming past her face toward the far-off surface. Her ears were ringing now. The water was cold, chilling her body; her muscles responded ever more sluggishly.
Kick. Kick. There was a rhy
thm to it. She let the discomfort flow over her with the water, let it flow through and away. Even with her lungs straining for air, even with her body going dead around her, she'd never felt so alive or so real. These were the moments she lived for, when she had pushed herself to the very edge and only her own stamina and drive could save her.
Distances were impossible to judge in the water. She found Marius by colliding with him. In the darkness she grappled with his immobile weight. Her fingers were numb, so she hooked her arm through his, discovering in the process that she was right; his hands were tied behind him.
In the water the difference in their weights hardly mattered. Her legs could push them both. If she could only decide where the surface was ...
It was pitch dark down here, with no glimmer of light to give a clue. She had found the surface before by following air bubbles, but her lungs had no more air to give. Red spots expanded in her vision. She had to clench her teeth against the desperate, lethal urge to inhale.
I am not going to die down here. I refuse.
And she refused to let go of Marius either. She hadn't come this far to abandon him to the water's cold embrace. Furiously she kicked in the direction that seemed easiest. She'd had to fight so hard to get down here; surely the easier way should be up ...?
Something bumped into her. In shock she nearly lost her grip on her self control, if not on Marius. Her mouth opened and cold water flooded over her teeth. She clamped her lips shut, swallowing the cold salty water because there was nothing else to do with it.
The bump came again from a different direction. There was something down here with them, something large. Something ... that tingled against her senses like a shifter.
Lucky ...?
She didn't have the strength to fight. All she could do was hold onto Marius's dead weight as the vast sinuous bulk pressed against her, pushing her through the water. The aching emptiness in her lungs was a physical presence, a pain so great it crowded out all other thoughts. She was losing the battle; her mouth opened, and water rushed in—
—just as her head broke the surface. Helplessly she coughed and retched, the seawater she'd swallowed burning her throat as it came back up. She hardly even cared, because air, precious air was everywhere. She couldn't inhale enough of it; she sobbed for breath, gasping lungful after lungful as her body's desperate need began to ease.
She raised her head and found herself sprawled facedown on a log—no, not a log, because it undulated slowly with the current, and she could feel the powerful muscles rippling beneath its pebbly hide.
"Lucky?" she said, coughing.
A dark wedge shape broke the moon-sheened sea in front of her. Water streamed from Lucky's horns as he raised his head. "Are you all right?" he asked, his voice a deep rumble that she could feel through the serpent's body beneath her.
He was the first shifter she'd met who could speak in his shifted form. Most didn't have the vocal apparatus for it. "You're a water dragon!" she said before she could stop herself.
"Not all the time, but I can remake myself for it easily." He lowered the long wedge of his head to nudge at Marius with his muzzle. "Is he dead?"
"I'm not sure." She hauled at Marius's body, rolling him onto his back. His face was slack and colorless, his mouth sagging open. "Okay, no, you are not allowed to die after I went to all the trouble of diving in after you, asshole." She smacked him hard in the face, to no visible effect.
"Good first aid skills," Lucky remarked, his draconic head hovering just above her.
"Shut up." She pressed her fingers to Marius's carotid and found a slight fluttering. He just wasn't breathing. Oh hell. "We will not speak of this," she murmured, and got up on her knees on Lucky's shifting back. She leaned over Marius and clamped her lips over his sea-salty ones.
A couple of breaths, followed by a hard thrust to his abdomen, got the response she was hoping for. His body jerked, and she rolled him onto the side and held him steady by the water-swollen rope around his hands as he coughed up water and gulped air.
"Lucky, can you do anything about the rope?"
Lucky lowered his head while she held it for him, spreading it between her clenched fists as best she could. His lips drew back from his teeth, and he nipped it neatly, severing it in a single bite.
"Nice! I bet you can open beer bottles too."
Lucky laughed. Like his voice, it was recognizably his laugh but in a deeper register.
With his hands freed, Marius flailed in an uncoordinated spasm and nearly slid off Lucky's scaly back into the sea. Jen caught him and hauled him back aboard. "Where's the ship?" she asked Lucky. "Oh ..." It was visible on the horizon, a glimmering city afloat, jeweled with lights in the darkness. It was also impossibly far away.
"They'll be sending a boat, I hope," Lucky said. "I did just like you said, yelled 'Man overboard' at the nearest redcap and then—"
"Jumped in after me?"
"More or less." He looked as petulant as a dragon's face was capable of. "Which, by the way, hurt. I wasn't expecting water to hurt."
"Wimp," Jen muttered. She gave Marius a shake. "Hey, we went to all this trouble to rescue you. Are you in there?"
"I ... am very confused," Marius mumbled.
"Just to let both of you know, I'm going to swim toward the ship," Lucky said. His body rippled under her as he spoke, but his head remained stationary, twisted around on the end of his long, sinuous neck. "You two need to get somewhere you can warm up. Tell me if you have trouble staying on."
She was definitely chilled through and through. The warm night no longer seemed so warm, and her teeth had started to chatter. "What about you?" she asked him. "Aren't you cold?"
"Not really." He still had his head twisted around backward to look at them, although his body was now cutting a V through the water as he swam. There was a slight back-and-forth zigzag motion to it, not quite unpleasant, but disconcerting. Jen settled herself more comfortably on his back. She wasn't able to easily straddle him, especially holding onto Marius; it was more convenient to sit sidesaddle, with her legs trailing in the water. Marius was still draped limply over Lucky's spine.
Sitting this way gave her a good view of Lucky's churning legs ... er ... no, wait ...
"Lucky," she said, peering into the water, "are those flippers you have under there?"
"For swimming," he agreed.
"Yes, but—so that's what you meant when you mentioned remaking yourself for the water, huh?"
"Sure. Gills, a wider and flatter body with more subcutaneous fat, swim flukes, that kind of thing." He frowned, a disconcerting expression on a dragon's face. "Can't you do that?"
"No. I'm just a gecko. Like, a normal gecko. I don't know anybody who can do that. We shift into ordinary animals—a little bigger than normal, usually, but not different in any other way."
"Huh," Lucky said thoughtfully. He lowered his head to rest on top of his spine, pointing backward, with his neck bent in a graceful loop that made Jen think of the handle of a teacup. "Maybe it's because dragons aren't real, as such. There's no non-shifting dragon to use as a template, so we just do it however."
Marius pushed himself up on his elbows, then rolled over and sat up. Jen kept a steadying hand on his arm. Even in the moonlight she could see the bruises from the ropes, dark stripes girdling his wrists. He must have fought like a wildcat to free himself, as he sank into the endless dark water.
"I'm alive," he said hoarsely in a musing tone, more to himself, it seemed, than to them. He touched Lucky's scales. "I am alive, right? This is actually happening?"
"Yes," Jen said. "You're alive and on a dragon's back. Life's weird, huh?"
Marius looked at her. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead in a flattened mess, the silver temples darkened by water and moonlight to the color of corroded iron. "Did you jump in after me? Both of you?"
His steady, puzzled regard made her uncomfortable. "What, you think I'm just gonna stand there and watch a guy die? Good for you I'm no
t as much of a jerk as you are."
Lucky raised his head. "Boat!" he said warningly.
The noise of the small craft's engine came to Jen's ears over the water. From here all she could see were the running lights of a small craft, bearing in their general direction.
"Lucky, shift!"
"You're both okay to swim, right?" Lucky asked, beginning to submerge. His back sank beneath them; water lapped against their legs.
"Yes," Marius said between clenched teeth, although he barely looked like he was capable of sitting up.
"I'll help him." A searchlight swept across the wavetops, illuminating the water mere feet from them. "You need to get out of sight."
Without a word, Lucky sank, and suddenly they were afloat. Marius started to sink as well, and clutched at her in panic.
"Roll onto your back," she ordered. "I'll help you. Just relax before you pull us both down."
It must have taken a great effort of will after his near-drowning earlier, but he obeyed, going limp in the water. She got him straightened out, floating on his back with her arm wrapped around his chest.
"You'll be okay as long as you stay loose and don't tense up," she told him as they bobbed on the waves. "I grew up in California. I wasn't exactly a beach bum, but I used to be a good swimmer, and I did a little lifeguarding as a teenager. Just chill and wait for help."
Lucky surfaced nearby in human form, naked. "It's freezing out here," he complained.
"Bet you miss those subcutaneous fat layers now, huh?"
"Yes," he said emphatically, swimming closer. "You good over there?"
"We're fine." Jen nudged Marius. "Hey, say something to let him know you're okay."
"Cold," Marius murmured.
"Thank you, someone else agrees," Lucky retorted. "Are you sure you're a gecko, and not a polar bear?"
"Just because some of us don't feel the need to complain all the time—" She broke off as the searchlight swept over them. "Hey! Over here! Lucky, wave at them. I'm using both arms."
Lucky waved, and the boat came around in a wide circle, the sound of the engines waning and then growing louder.
