Page 27 of Close Quarter
Sound escaped his throat then, but it was only a whimper.
Radmila licked Rhys's neck. "Oh, but it just did, didn't it?"
They walked him down to a table nestled close to the bulkhead and draped in shadow. Jarek pushed him hard against the metal wall. Cloth ripped, and his tie was stripped from his neck. His shirt followed, buttons clacking to the wooden deck. Cold lips skimmed his shoulder blade.
Jarek's teeth ripped into Rhys's skin and muscle.
Flaming spikes pierced his flesh. Rhys's throat ached as though he screamed, but only whimpers came out. Those small sounds seemed to drive Jarek on. Fingers dug into his other shoulder and tore into that flesh as well.
Rhys was going to die. God, he wanted to die.
Then the torment, the burning fire in his blood would stop.
It didn't. When Radmila yanked Jarek away, it lessened for a moment. She spoke, but the words made no sense. Again Jarek laughed and backed away. Radmila closed in.
Rhys burned as if someone had set fire to the marrow in his bones. When she pulled back, he would have cried out in relief had he been able to make any sound at all.This isn't happening. Thiscan't be happening.
They ripped off the rest of his clothes, the fabric screeching as it tore. The only other sound in the night was the hum of the ship and the slap of the water against the hull. No footsteps. No one to save him.
Jarek lifted Rhys and laid him out on the table, the cold open-weave metal scraped against Rhys's bare back, an almost pleasant touch compared to what had come before.
The respite didn't last. Radmila hovered in his vision, teeth fully bared. She drew a claw down his cheek, a parody of a lover's caress. The wound stung as if sand had been rubbed into it.
The sharp metallic smell of blood filled his nose.
He tasted the tang in his mouth.
Then the vampires tore into his body. Ice sliced through his legs. Fire pulsed up in waves.
He felt the tug and rip of his flesh and the acid burn after, when sea spray covered them. Teeth pierced Rhys's chest like glass daggers. Radmila's hair fell against the ruin of his face and shoulder. The fine strands slithered like maggots, then buried into his flesh. Rhys's nerves screamed and seemed to rip out of his body. A buzzing filled his ears, and lightning flashed over his vision. But he didn't-- couldn't--pass out. Something close to a wail finally escaped his lips.
Rhys shouted a single name over and over in his head.
Silas!
Chapter Six
Twice while Silas limped toward the garden, he nearly lost his glamour. Both times he propped himself up against the closest wall and reached through the ship for any traces of green life. Potted plants. Algae. Anything from which he could draw his element.
There was so very little. Frustrating and infuriating. He should sense the garden, be able to draw on it, but it was hidden from him.
One slow step at a time, he descended the metal stairs to the deck that contained the garden.
The elevators were too public to attempt. Not when he had trouble wrapping a glamour around his bleeding and broken form.
The ship itself shouldn't be the reason the garden remained distant. Metal wasn't useful to Silas, but it didn't affect him more than any other nonliving material did. While it wasn't easy to do, he'd drawn power from the earth while in the middle of skyscrapers, surrounded by concrete, iron, and steel. A ship should be no different. He certainly could--and did--draw on those tiny sparks of element he did manage to find.
Whatever protected the garden must have been placed there to hamper him. Fear crept into Silas. The soulless knew his name, had been waiting for him. Knew his weaknesses.
How? He'd destroyed all the soulless he'd ever met, save for a handful very early in his life.
Silas reached out to steady himself against the stairwell wall. One more deck. He pushed off, gripped the railing, and tried not to fall down the stairs.
It was a near thing. His leg, the one the soulless had bitten, was numb from the knee down.
So he was not just the hunter but prey as well.
This did not bode well. But he would deal with that tomorrow.
