Before Beasts, There Was Water--Book 4

Man Overboard

"Ta-dah!" Tyson flashed out a vaguely familiar device with a grid format green screen. "Remember this little beauty? It's Chief's bitbeast detector! He amped the voltage to the max to broaden the, uh, sensor thing, and since Dranzer's already in the system, it zipped in like so and all there was left to do was find a boat! Granted, we had to leave it off so it didn't drain all its juice, but freaking sweet, right?"

Kai just clenched his jaw to try and steady his shaking head, but his teeth only clattered like dice in a wooden box. It hurt. The cold hurt so bad.

"Kai?"

"J-jacket."

"You want to borrow my jacket? Uh, sure, but it's kind of got blood all over it."

Kai didn't care. He took it and pulled it around him till his knuckles popped from the effort. But he might as well have wrapped tissue paper about him for all the good it did.

But another detail had drifted across his mind. It had cropped up the same time he had seen Ray holding Ayah, and it had been to Max who sat besides them. Usually the kid was hyper even when Tyson showed signs of wearing down, but he slumped against the railing and silent.

"How's Max?" he managed to push out.

Tyson frowned, probably confused as to why Kai asked him instead of Max himself. "Fine as the rest of us. Why?"

Kai figured that would have to do and tried to find another way to curl tighter. Fear had begun to bubble up in him. Why was he so cold? They said this was a fever, but he had never experienced a fever like this. His mind was still here, sharp and clear, and usually he could feel the heat of his own body through the cold, but there was only ice. He hadn't a clue what heat Tyson spoke of, and the only reason he believed him was because the jacket, which should have been warmed by Tyson's body heat, had been cool to the touch.

But this...this was painful.

"Wa-wasn't I on fire?" Maybe these were burns deeper than before—burns inside of him; burns he couldn't see on his skin.

"That's the other cool part!" said Tyson, ignorant to Kai's growing panic. "You totally were! But then this sort of crazy winged black thing rose up from Cain, and you fell down, totally still on fire, but then Max came up from the beach and he totally brought the freaking ocean with him! Draciel and him were, like, totally one, sort of, I don't know. But Max looked so awesome! He waved Draciel forward along with the wave and it squashed the black thing and put you out like that! Yeah, he sort of nearly drowned us all, but Ray somehow got us all out with, like..." Tyson stopped to frown. "How did you get us out, Ray?"

Kai couldn't see Ray's reaction. He had clenched his eyes in a desperate attempt to keep back his frantic thoughts. It was so cold—so cold—his very bones were trying to shake loose from his flesh. Having experienced hypothermia in mass quantities in his youth, he knew that by this point his shivering should have stopped, if nothing because of weariness. But even then his mind shouldn't be this aware—he shouldn't be so awake! It hurt!

He crunched inward harder, bringing his knees to his forehead, ignoring the discomfort of his arms digging into his gut.

"Yo, Kai, you alright man?"

Kai tried to tell him to shut up, but his jaw jabbered against his collar bone and bit down hard on his tongue. He let out a muffled yelp of pain.

"Whoa, Kai, spread out, get some air—"

When Tyson's cold hand touched him, he reflexively slapped out against it. He heard Tyson gasp.

"Guys, we need ice—"

"No!" Kai cried. He didn't need to think of the weakness it displayed. If they dipped him in ice, he really would die. He knew it from the bottom of his gut, more sure than anything in the world, he would freeze to death. "I'm fine!"

"Dude, I could have gotten blisters from your hand! And, frick, you're steaming!"

He heard a shuffle and another hand—possibly Max, which he slapped at too and all but yelled, "Leave me alone!"

Max swore. "You're not kidding Tyson. But I don't think we're going to find ice on this thing."

"Then rope. We can dip him in the ocean—"

"No!" He fought to uncoil himself free, but his muscles has seized up. They spasmed and protested against his orders. "NO!"

"Ayah? Guys, she's awake!"

Kai didn't care. As long as she drew the attention away from him while he got his body to listen. He had to run—he had to hide, stop them from trying to kill him, good intentions be damned.

"Ayah?"

A pair of hands reached through his hair, even colder than Tyson's. He tried to hit those aside too, but his arms wouldn't uncramp far enough to reach that high.

Just above the noise of his chattering bones, he heard her hushing to him.

"It's okay. You're going to be all right." Her fingers twined down to cup his head. A breath of air, bringing with it the scent of cinnamon rolls, told him her lips were just over his ear. They were warm. Blessedly, blessedly warm. "It will pass. Hush. It's okay, I think I hear Dranzer with you. You told me once she's never burned you before, even when you were a child."

He opened his mouth to say she had burnt him just a few days ago, but his teeth once more caught to his tongue and he tasted blood.

"Shh, shh." The warm lips traced around his ear, and he shuddered for them. He wanted them all over him, he wanted her to touch every inch of his freezing skin with the warmth until the pain went away.

She started to sing, and there was nothing magical about it this time. It was just the voice she used to speak with, singing more beautifully than any girl had a right to. It carried the tune of a lullaby he thought he might know. And as she sang, the more her warm breath puffed over him.

As his panic subsided, the cold did as well, though just enough to uncoil his knotted body and calm the worse of the tremors. Without his knowing she had eased his head onto her lap, which now had the proper warmth that another body should have. With the relaxing of his muscles came an overwhelming fatigue. The very smell of her was warmth.

"Max! What the heck are you—MAX!"

A loud splash jolted Kai awake. His eyes flew open to see Ray and Tyson throwing themselves against the railing.

And there was no Max.

"Man overboard!" screamed Tyson, even as he tossed himself over as well. The floorboards beneath Kai vibrated with footsteps and black dressed Abbey assassins started to appear, some holding lifebuoys.

As Ray dove over, Kai struggled upright and to his feet and managed to stagger to the railing. Even as he got one foot up and felt a hand tugging back on his shirt, a wave of water splashed on him.

He couldn't even call it cold anymore. It could only be liquid agony.

He was hardly aware of being pulled back from the railing, screaming.

And then the darkness took him once more.