Page 18 (1/2)
"One question though Damiãno wasn&039;t with you?"
She shook her head, giving hi the identity of the Barão&039;s killers to the robed fanatics
When he heard the fate of those passengers, Travis&039;s pale visage grew leached of even more color "Are you sure it was those three that did it? It could&039;ve been Malaqu��"
"Malaqu�� was killed, too" She thought she detected disappointht
Izabel ran in then, her eyes going wide at the sight of MacRieve "Deus do c��u! Is he going to be all right?"
Lucia said, "It&039;s just a flesh wound"
She nodded duo?"
"Escaped," Travis answered "Long gone"
When MacRieve roused once et him back to the cabin"
With Travis and Lucia&039;s help, MacRieve was able to make it to his feet But when he lurched, Travis ducked under his ar bastard," he said with a grunt
Once they&039;d navigated MacRieve back to cabin seven and heaved hiet underway right now, get hiazed at the fresh blood seeping from the captain&039;s head wound MacRieve&039;s not the one who needs to get to a hospital
The captain raised his face and called, "Chuck!" He frohen no reply caht, right?" Travis seeenuinely worried
Izabel said, "He&039;s fine"
Travis&039;s concern shifted to ire "Then where the hell is he?"
"Charlie&039;s he&039;s" Izabel trailed off, looking at Lucia with pleading eyes
I can&039;t believe I&039; a hole e came in Looked pretty bad"
Izabel quickly added, "Capitão, your head&039;s bleeding again I&039;ll put you back in bed, then go help Charlie We&039;ll get the Contessa under way in no time"
Lucia waited for Travis to bark that no one could iazed down at Izabel and muttered, "What would I do without you two?"
Izabel, in turn, looked crestfallen And now Lucia understood why Okay, perhaps they do have a decent-sized barrier between the into the cabin One of the lenses in his glasses was cracked, and his cowlick had finally deflated "Uh, there&039;s a beaine roo like he wanted to murder the professor
"So I think Rossiter&039;s in there"
At once, the captain and Izabel charged out When MacRieve cracked open an eye and muttered to Lucia, "Go Like that ine roo to e already saturated with red Schecter orthless Izabel was gone, no doubt "looking" for Charlie
"Here, let led, she wrenched the bea fu her hand in front of her face
Once the mias his way up the steps He was shirtless, covered in grease and sweat, and up to his waist in water He also looked drunk from fumes, his eyes bloodshot
As Lucia rushed down to help hih on the wall froh?" If so, then the ship had been sinking
Rossiter rasped, "I was singularly "
She couldn&039;t i that would have been for hi, knowing he was about to drown
Travis said, "If not for you, we&039;d have gone down" Over his shoulder, he added, "All because of the giant fucking caimans!"
Everyone on board hated Schecter, but Rossiter had the ht, the doctor&039;shis orchid Schecter ot Rossiter back on the deck, his wild-eyed gaze landed on Schecter With a maddened bellow, the doctor attacked
Chapter 46
"I haven&039;t seen a punch like that in ages," Lucia said as she entered the wheelhouse Chizabel was piloting the boat into a drae sunset
The already cracked windshield had been no match for cai black hair flowed behind her Izabel was so feminine; you&039;d never know she was half- Schecter?" Izabel said "I never knew the expression beating the piss out of someone was literal"
"I meant to step in and break it up sooner Really I did," Lucia said "So where&039;s Travis?"
"Capitão&039;s sleeping in his cabin Rossiter shot him up with some morphine"
The doctor had wanted to examine MacRieve as well, but Lucia had insisted his wounds were superficial, assuring Rossiter, You&039;ll see hi in no time
"Is MacRieve still alive?"
"He&039;s resting, too" The Scot had been passed out again but was regenerating nicely "Prognosis is good"
Izabel raised her brows at that All the huht he was surely at death&039;s door
Lucia guessed she and Izabel would dance around the subject of her being part er So she stared at the sun over the water As distraught as she&039;d been just this , Lucia was now filled with hope
In her possession was a dieu herself from Cruach And one step closer to a future with MacRieve, the Lykae who&039;d soone from enemy to lover to love of her life
But she wasn&039;t prepared for MacRieve just yet Earlier, on the ride back to the Contessa, Lucia had feared he would ask her to h it wasn&039;t necessarily the Lykae way, he&039;d told her she&039;d be his wife one day And if he&039;d proposed, what could she have said? Rain check? Let et back to you when I&039;m a
Now, in a matter of days, she could return to the Scot - free at last Free of Skathi and Cruach "How et back?" Lucia asked
"Four days Max"
"You know the way?"
Izabel glared "Better than anybody on this river," she answered "So Capitão told ht Damiãno really attacked you? I kneas louco!"
"In a big way"
"Travis said the robed ious fanatics after some relic you and MacRieve found"
"That&039;s it exactly I&039;lad we made it out alive" Lucia pulled up another stool "So, last night was revealing in a lot of ways" Rossiter was a hero, Schecter a criuy "You want to tell azed around as if she were being pranked "Uh, yes I am Is there another option?"
Lucia answered with a question: "So do you knohy you&039;re like you are?"
"I was cursed by what I can only figure was an evil woman Voodoo, Santeria, who knows?" She frowned "How co out?"
"I was rattled at first But I&039;ve always believed in the supernatural, so I got over it soon enough," Lucia answered "So when did Izabel Carlotta becahed "Two years ago, I&039;d just gotten du and wished with all ht the way they did This strange,wo I woke up hungover Oh, and a man"
Evil sorceress, had to be
"I ca to find a cure or an explanation"
A cure wasn&039;t likely Sorceress spells tended to stick, unless lifted by another one of equal or greater power Lucia kneitch - Mariketa the Awaited, a party-hearty mercenary of the Wiccae - who could possibly nullify it, but she&039;d had her hellacious powers bound for fifty years, until she could better handle them Izabel was doubtless stuck like this for the duration
"Can you switch back and forth at will?" When Izabel nodded, Lucia asked, "Are you going to tell Travis? It&039;s only a ures it out"
Izabel&039;s eyes watered "He&039;ll never understand I&039;et hiirl Before she would&039;ve been thrilled that Izabel was leaving Travis Now Lucia resented the fact that the girl felt she had to
What&039;s with all the sy for humans? Maybe Lucia should open up a stray shelter for ive hiht surprise you"
"It&039;s not that easy You see, &039;Charlie&039; needs love, too And Travis there&039;s just no way"
"If you can change back and forth, then just stay in your female fore into Charlie enough and vice versa"
"That&039;s why Charlie was often pale" Now that Lucia thought back, she recalled both twins had dressed in the say clothes in case she&039;d had to transforht now?"
"Yes, but I don&039;t take requests," she quipped, wiping her nose on her sleeve "You won&039;t tell Capitão, will you?" She looked utterly distraught at the idea of hi
Lucia raised her brows "You really think he&039;d believe me?"
"No, not in um milhão de anos, a million years," she answered "So are we still friends?"
"Yes, we&039;re still friends, Chiz Though I&039;"
Izabel gasped "Oh, like Charlie would have your skinny ass, skank!"
"No, because Chuck digs the drunk dudes like his low-hanging-fruit sister"
Izabel choked out a laugh, her expression startled "First tih about this!"
Then my work here is done "Listen, if you&039;re ever in New Orleans, I want you to look me up There&039;s some crazy stuff in that town, maybe we could find someone who knohat happened to you"
Her eyes ide "Do you et you my number before we make port"
As she exited down the companionway steps, Lucia met up with Rossiter He&039;d showered and dressed - and still hadn&039;t slept
"I was just looking for you," he said "Are you sure you don&039;t want me to see to your husband?"
"What?"
"I could examine him"
"Oh MacRieve He&039;s fine It truly was only a graze But thanks for the offer And thank you again for keeping the ship afloat"
He gave a rueful grin "There was an element of self preservation at work"
If he&039;d ever needed to rest, it&039;d be after that hellish night he&039;d just spent But for hiain, sympathy rose in her "Look, I&039;m sorry this expedition didn&039;t work out for you"
With a shrug, he said, "Hey, I&039;ll live" Then he alrimace
No, he wouldn&039;t I don&039;t like humans, I don&039;t like humans As much as she inwardly chanted that to herself, she still had the e to help this one
Before she did so him Psst, you wanna becoo make a call" Then she brushed past him
As she headed for the stern deck, she dialed N&iuot her She found the soothsayer lucid Mostly
"N&iuood news and some really shitty news," Lucia said Then she explained everything that had happened, finishing with, "So, uh, a jot of water otten in the tomb"
"Noho did you wake up?" N&iureat evil Gilded One Ringing a bell?"
"We&039;ll worry about that later," Nïx said "For now, let&039;s stop at least one apocalypse Aren&039;t you on the books for an attempted assassination soon? Where is that Post-it?"
"Yes, Nïx, I&039;ll be back to port in four days I need transportation, warmer clothes, jeans, and boots"
"I&039;ll have a helicopter standing by in Iquitos, then a jet to the Northlands fueled and waiting with clothes and gear for you Assu I remember any of this"
"Nïx!"
"Oh, oh, I do reet away fro him, but why do you say so?"
"Because he&039;s intending to do just that to you To go face Cruach - without you"
"No, he wouldn&039;t!" He didn&039;t even know of her involveht if she could keep it hidden, she&039;d prevent so like this
"Oh, but he would"
Probably for so her safe! Bastard! Besides the fact that this was her fight - and she&039;d waited a long time to destroy the Broken Bloody One - Cruach could infect MacRieve