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"You used me for bait."
"You fell in."
"Ms. Blake say we can move the thing?" Titus asked.
"Yes," Dolph said.
"Go to it, boys."
The divers all looked at each other. "Can we have the spotlight now?" MacAdam asked.
"Sure," I said.
The light smashed into me. I put a hand up to shield my eyes and nearly slipped off the rock. Jesus it was bright. The water was still opaque, black, and choppy, but the rocks glistened and Aikensen and I were suddenly center stage. The bright light washed all the color from the snakeskin.
MacAdam slipped his face mask on, regulator secure in his mouth. Only one other diver followed his lead. Guess they didn't need four to go in after the skin.
"Why're they putting on tanks just to wade out here?" Aikensen asked.
"Insurance in case the current gets them, or they find a sinkhole."
"Current's not that bad."
"Bad enough that if it catches the skin, the skin's gone. With tanks you can follow something in the water all the way down, wherever it goes."
"You sound like you've done it."
"I'm certified."
"Well, aren't you multitalented," he said.
The divers were almost out to us. Their tanks looked like the backs of whales sticking out of the water. MacAdam raised his face mask out of the water, and put a gloved hand on the rocks. He took the regulator out of his mouth, hugging the rock and paddling with his legs to keep free of the current. The other diver moved over by Aikensen.
"There a problem if we tear the skin?" MacAdam asked.
"I'll unhook it from this side of the rock."
"You'll get your arm wet."
"I'll live, right?"
I couldn't see his face well enough under all the equipment, but I'd bet he was frowning at me.
"Yeah, you'll live."
I moved my hand down the front of the skin until I hit water. The cold made me hesitate, but only for a heartbeat. I reached down, soaking myself to the shoulder to untangle it. My hand touched something slick and solid that wasn't skin. I gave a small yip and jerked back, nearly falling. I got my balance and went for my gun.
I had time to say, "Something's down there." It surfaced.
A round face, with a screaming lipless mouth, shot upward, hands reaching for MacAdam. I had a glimpse of dark eyes before it fell back into the water.
The divers got the hell out of there, swimming with strong sure strokes for shore.
Aikensen had stumbled back, falling into the water. He came up sputtering, gun in hand.
"Don't shoot it," I said. The thing surfaced again. I slid in beside it. It shrieked, its human-shaped hand groping for me. It grabbed a handful of jacket and pulled itself to me. My gun was in my hand, but I didn't shoot.
Aikensen was aiming at it. Shouts from the shore. The other cops coming, but there was no time. There was just Aikensen and me in the river.
The creature clung to me, not screaming now, just clinging as if I were the last thing in the world. It buried its earless face into my chest. I pointed my gun at Aikensen's chest.
That seemed to get his attention. He blinked, focusing on me. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Point it somewhere else, Aikensen."
'I'm tired of looking down the barrel of your gun, bitch."
"Ditto," I said.
Voices shouting, movement on the bank, people coming, almost there. Only seconds left until someone came. Someone saved us. Seconds too late.
A shot exploded next to Aikensen. Close enough to spray him with water. He jumped, and his gun fired. The creature went wild, but I was already moving, diving for the rocks. It clung to me as if attached. We floated by the big rock, swirling in snakeskin, but I managed to point the Browning at Aikensen. The sound of his Magnum vibrated in the air, echoing down my bones. If Aikensen had turned towards us, I'd have fired.
"Goddamn it, Aikensen, put that damn gun away!" The splashing was heavy, and it was probably Titus wading into the water, but I couldn't look away from Aikensen.
Aikensen was looking away from me towards the splashing. Dolph got there first. He loomed over Aikensen like the vengeance of God.
Aikensen's gun started to swing towards him, as if he sensed his danger.
"You point that gun at me and I will feed it to you," Dolph said. His voice was low and reverberated even through the ringing in my ears.
"If he points it at you," I said, "I'll shoot him."
"Nobody's shooting him but me." Titus waded up. He was shorter than everyone but me, so he was struggling in the water. He grabbed Aikensen by the belt and pulled him off his feet, tearing the gun from his hand as he fell into the water.
Aikensen surfaced choking and mad. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"Ask Ms. Blake why I did it. Ask her, ask her!" He was short and wet, and still managed to browbeat Aikensen.
"Why?" Aikensen said.
I'd lowered the Browning, but hadn't put it away. "Trouble with carrying a big gun, Aikensen, is that it goes through a hell of a lot of flesh."
"What?"
Titus pushed him, making him stumble. Aikensen struggled to stay on his feet. "If you'd pulled that trigger, boy, with the creature pressed right up against her, you'd have killed her, too."
"I thought she was just protecting it. She said not to shoot it. Look at it!"
Everyone turned to me then. I used the rocks to leverage to my feet. The creature was dead weight, as if he'd passed out with his hands locked in my jacket. I had more trouble putting the gun away than I had getting it out. Cold, adrenaline, and the man's hand stuck on my jacket, covering the holster.
Because that's what I was holding. A man, a man who had been skinned alive, but somehow wasn't dead. Of course, it wasn't exactly a man.
"It's a man, Aikensen," Titus said. "It's a hurt man. If you weren't so damn busy pulling your gun and shooting at things, you might see what's in front of ya."
"It's a naga," I said.
Titus didn't seem to hear me. Dolph asked, "What did you say?"
"He's a naga."
"Who is?" Titus asked.
"The man," I said.
"What the hell is a naga?"
"Everybody out of the water now," a voice from shore yelled. It was a paramedic with an armload of blankets. "Come on folks, let's not have to run everybody into the hospital tonight." I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard the paramedic mutter under his breath, "Damn fools."
"What the hell is a naga?" Titus asked again.
"I'll explain if you can help me get him to shore. I'm freezing my ass off out here."
"You're freezing more than your ass off," the paramedic said. "Everybody to shore, now. Move it people."
"Help her," Titus said. Two uniformed deputies were in the water. They splashed up. They lifted the man, but his fists had locked into my jacket. It was a death grip. I checked the pulse in his throat. It was there, faint but steady.
The medic was folding blankets around everybody as they hit shore. His partner, a slender woman with pale hair was staring at the naga, glistening like an open wound in the spotlight.
"What the hell happened to him?" one of the deputies asked.
"He's been skinned," I said.
"Jesus Christ," the deputy said.
"Right thought, wrong religion," I said.
"What?"
"Nothing. Can you pry his hands loose?" They couldn't, not easily. They ended up carrying him cradled between them. I sort of stumbled to the shore with his fingers still locked in my clothes. None of us fell. A second miracle. The first was that Aikensen was still alive. Staring at the raw bluish skin of the man, maybe the miracle count was higher than just two.
The medic with the pale hair knelt by the naga. She let out her breath in a great whoosh of air. The other medic threw blankets around me and the two deputies.
"When you get him pried off of you, you get your butt up to the ambulances. Get out of those wet clothes, ASAP."
I opened my mouth and he pointed a finger at me. "Clothes off and sit in a warm ambulance, or a trip to the hospital. Your choice."
"Aye, aye, Captain," I said.
"And don't you forget it," he said. He moved off to spread blankets and orders to the rest of the cops.
"What about the skin?" Titus asked. He had a blanket wrapped around him.
