Page 140 of Tin God
“Where’s Paulson?” Carwyn growled.
“Nautilus,” the man choked out. “Bridge.”
He turned his head, spotted theNautilusand the vampires already steaming upward toward the glass-covered deck that must have been the bridge.
“Good.”
“Let me—” The vampire’s words were choked off when Carwyn sliced the bowie knife across his spine.
There were three zombielike humans stumbling around the deck of the speedboat and slipping in the rain, but Carwyn could feel no other vampires, and the ones who had fired the rocket launchers were dead or neutralized.
The boat was bobbing in the stormy sea and drifting toward the immense black hull of the cruise ship. He ran to the controls, took the wheel, and gave the engine a short burst of power to point it in the correct direction.
Then Carwyn aimed the bow toward the beach where Ben had taken his mate and hit the throttle.
The speedboat jerked forward in the water, hitting the chop with rough slams until it reached a steady speed and rose to skim over the waves.
He had no idea how to properly drive it, but that didn’t matter. He was planning to run it aground on the island where Brigid and Tenzin had gone to fight Zasha.
Carwyn aimed for the widest part of the beach he could see in the darkness, then braced himself and cut the throttle as he felt the first scrape of gravel on the hull.
The boat crashed up the beach, roaring over the rocky shore with a heinous gratingscraaaaaapeas it headed toward the tree line.
He crouched down as the dense cedar, pine, and hemlock grabbed the bow of the speedboat and forced it to stop. The boat rocked to the side, and the humans groaned as they rolled across the deck, shielding their heads and curling into balls.
Carwyn used the velocity of the boat to launch himself into the forest, crashing through the branches and digging his feet into the welcoming, rocky soil.
Ahhhh, that was better.
The moment he touched the ground, he could feel her.
Mate.
He started to run, weaving through the trees, his amnis reaching through the soil and the rock and the roots. Smoke drifted in the air, and he could smell the faint scent of charred flesh.
Brigid!
Carwyn’s mind screamed her name, but he said nothing, barreling toward the fight with the single-minded focus of a man on fire.
“Hssssss!”Ben’s shoulders retracted and the hair on his neck rose when he felt the burning sensation in his arm and across his neck.
Tenzin.
He felt her pain in his own body, but he also felt her rage, and his fangs ached as her amnis rose in defiance.
His mate’s pain distracted him only for a moment before he swung the hammer from the toolbox he’d found on the deck, brought it down, and shattered the window covering the bridge, letting him and two other wind vampires inside.
For the first time, he saw Paulson in the flesh.
He was dressed in a tuxedo, and his arrogant expression didn’t waver as he pointed his chin at Ben and barked a command at the dozen guards who flanked him. Some of the guards raised automatic rifles and pointed them at the vampires crawling onto the bridge.
“Kill him,” the vampire billionaire said calmly. “Kill them all.”
Ben smiled through bloody lips. “I don’t think so.”
Paulson dropped his radio and pushed the guards at his side forward.
Three of the guards dove toward the wind vampire on his left and three others toward the one on his right, driving both of Jennie’s people off the bridge as Paulson’s guards tackled them to the deck outside, leaving six armed vampires standing in front of Henri Paulson with their eyes on Ben.