Page 41 of Tin God

Carwyn closed his eyes again and tried to focus on the feeling of the metal against his palms. Steady, cool, beautifully solid metal holding the terrors of the vast Pacific Ocean at bay. It was fine. Even if the seams cracked and the water rushed in, he couldn’t drown.

But he would be fucking cold and wet.

“Why do vampires get motion sickness anyway?”

Benjamin Vecchio was incapable of being silent.

“It’s not actually sickness; it’s an imbalance of the inner ear,” Carwyn said. “If anything, we’re more sensitive to it than humans are. It would be worse if there weren’t water vampires on board.”

Katya’s ships were all captained by water vampires who both kept the worst of the chop away from the boats and also knew the water better than the fish. It was one of the reasons her fleet was one of the most successful in the area.

“Is commercial fishing a big part of her business?” Ben asked. “How many boats does she have?”

“Dozens, I imagine. All around this size.” ThePacific Ladywas a 120-foot vessel that fished for all kinds of seafood and shellfish off the coast of the US and Canada. It was registered to one of Katya’s many companies and held seven human crew members along with the vampire captain. The men were crowded into two cabins at the moment since they were carrying vampire cargo, but as two of the crew members had missing relatives on the boats that vanished, no one was complaining.

“The food will be better on this ship if you get hungry.” Carwyn was starting to get thirsty. He would need to hunt when they reached the first site. “In my experience, most fishing boats don’t put up with bad food.”

“I do like fish.”

“You’re in the right place then.” He could feel the boat turn, and he waited for it.

Wait for it.

Just a second longer…

“Fuck!”

Carwyn smiled and opened his eyes. Ben hadn’t felt the boat turn, and the sudden rocking had smacked his head on the corner of the hull.

“You all right?” Carwyn poked his head out from under his bunk.

“Yeah,” Ben muttered. “I’m fine.”

Carwyn looked at the black circle of the porthole. There was a light-safe shield that covered it during the day, but it was night. He could barely make out a few sparkling stars in the cold night and the sliver of the edge of the moon.

“You could go up to the deck if you wanted.”

“That sounds like a recipe for me flying my ass away from here and leaving you behind,” Ben said.

“Not if you want my help.”

Ben muttered something in Mandarin that Carwyn pretended not to understand.

“Is this how you crossed the ocean back in the day?” Ben asked.

“Yes, and trust me when I say this is very much an improvement.”

“Why don’t you buy a plane like Gio and B?”

Carwyn had money. He had plenty of money. What he didn’t have was the patience to pay bills. “Too permanent. Your uncle has a plane, which also means he has a pilot, a crew, a hangar to keep it in, and rent for that. He has bookkeepers and money managers and?—”

“Butlers. Don’t forget the butlers.”

Carwyn smiled. “Exactly. Which is why I love to visit your uncle, but I do not want to be him.”

Ben rolled over to look at Carwyn. “Are you telling me you don’t have a bookkeeper? That you don’t pay taxes?”

“I don’t think so.”