Page 103 of Close Quarter
"What?" And then he felt it. A tug of element, but not toward Silas. Every hair on his neck rose.
Here. They were here. Sandwiched between Silas's deck and his.Holy shit."They must have felt everything."
Silas's face was unreadable. He reached into the tumult of the Aether and drew his sword. "Stay back. Behind me."
The pull came from the door to their left.
Cabin 1013.
Figures.
Silas unlocked the door and pushed it open.
Stillness from inside. And something else--the sticky smell of decay. Silas's sword was already in motion when he ran into the room.
Rhys remained outside, waiting. The stillness shattered into an unnatural howl, followed by an angry guttural cry.
"Rhys!" Silas shouted. A vampire burst through the door and hit the opposing wall. It recovered quickly. No beautiful seduction here, this one came at Rhys with fangs and claws, its face twisted into a snarl. He threw himself down the hall away from the thing but tripped as the boat bobbed, and he fell onto the carpeting.
No way Silas could save him. No time. Rhys plunged his hand into the Aether in hopes that something--anything--would be there. A familiar touch of leather against his skin, then the sword was in his hand. A moment later, the vampire impaled itself on it. Flame burst out of the vampire's leering mouth and blackened its teeth.
Eyes boiled off with a hiss. Hot ash stung Rhys's face as he scrambled backward away from the sudden inferno consuming the vampire.
Rhys choked back the bile rising in his throat.
The smell of charred flesh lingered in the hall.
Rhys stared at Silas, who stood, sword in hand, just outside the cabin door.
No alarms. No sprinklers went off. Silas let go of the door frame, took two steps forward, then stopped. He stared at the floor.
The sword Rhys had pulled from the Aether lay on the carpet amid a pile of ash. Rhys sat up and touched the hilt.
Yup. Real.Just like the one in Silas's hand.
"Oh my God."
"I thought..." Silas took another step forward, and ash fell from his blade. "When you drew before..." He stopped. "Pick it up. We need to get out of here."
"But--"
Silas's tone changed to a command. "Now.
Anaxandros will have heard that."
Shit.Rhys staggered to his feet and grabbed the sword. "Which way?"
"Whichever is fastest to the outside."
"That would be behind me, Quintus."
Rhys dodged to one side as Silas skittered down the hall, his whole body pale and tense. His eyes were wide.
Anaxandros stood between them and the closest set of elevators, as well as the only outside deck on this level. In his hand, he held a black blade twice as long as the ones Rhys and Silas carried. Looking at it made Rhys's stomach churn.
Something about the metal--it crawled through his mind.
"Run," Silas said.
