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“Just do it!”
He frowns at me. “The thing’s on its way back to the ocean. Why would you want to getunderit?”
True enough, the water ghoul is slinking slowly towards the sea, but I can see its tiny heart pulsing through the gelatinous body. I have to get to it. It’s not just my job—it’s now personal. I need to make sure that horrid creature doesn’t put anyone else through what I just went through.
“All I need is for you to hoist up the central tentacle,” I tell Derith.
“So you can kill it,” he says, putting the pieces together.
“Yes,” I answer. “Now, can you put that super strength of yours to use or what?”
Without another word, he picks me up and rushes me over to the edge of the shoreline where the ghoul has just met the water. As instructed, he grabs hold of one of the ghoul’s tentacles and hoists it over his shoulder. Water ghouls are fairly dumb, and it doesn’t notice what’s happening. I’m sure its only thought is to return to the ocean, assume its amoeba form, and find a host to destroy.
I try to take a step on my injured leg and crumple. Derith catches me with his other hand, lifting me up by the arm like I’m as light as a feather.
“Throw me under,” I say.
He shakes his head. “I can’t throw—”
“You can’t or you won’t?” I ask, staring directly into his narrowed eyes. “I can do this,” I say firmly. “Throw me under.”
He looks unsure, but he takes a deep, unnecessary breath.
“Good luck, little warrior,” he says with a wink and a sigh that seems hopeful.
As graceful as anyone’s ever been thrown, Derith slides me quickly under the belly of the beast. Unfortunately, at just the same moment, the water ghoul catches onto the fact that Derith is holding it immobile and swats him away. The tentacle falls, and I’m utterly buried beneath the gelatinous mound of water monster.
I can’t get a breath into my lungs, and, at first, I can’t move either.
I hear the muffled call of my name. Sound barely travels through this thing. The underbelly of the water ghoul is soft and overwhelming my senses, but I can see through to the pulsing, glowing heart within. That’s all I need.
I wriggle my arm up to my side, and in one smooth, rapid shift of movement, I pierce through the thing’s body and into its heart. There’s an awful bellowing sound that’s almost a cry, but I don’t pay it any attention. Instead, I pull back and stab upward again, this time, right through the center of the tiny glowing heart. The water ghoul bursts into an exploding bubble of chunky wet fiber, and I’m left in the middle, gasping for air.
Derith walks over to me and stands, looking over me with an expression on his face that looks like admiration mixed with shock.
“Remember when I said I was impressed before,” he says. “Strike that from the record.Now, I’m impressed.
He tries to help me up, but I shove him off, simply biting my tongue to cope with the pain in my leg.
“And on that note, it’s time for us to part ways,” I say.
Derith moves to stop me. “I can’t let you leave.”
“You might be master to your handful of idiots, but you aren’t master to me,” I remind him.
He pauses and then seems unsure how to proceed. “Look, I don’t want us to fall into a prisoner/jailer relationship, but I will do what I must to keep you… here.”
“And I will do what I must to get the fuck out of here!” I rail at him.
He shakes his head. “You and I… have things to discuss.”
“You and I are nothing and therefore we have nothing to discuss,” I growl. “And your time has run out.”
He shoots me that smug smile of his. “Bold worlds for a woman who’s exhausted, unarmed and practically naked.”
I smile back. “Or confident words from a woman who’s been watching the skyline this entire time.”
Derith starts around to see the red glow that’s massing at the horizon. The fight with the water ghoul must have distracted him from something that all vampires, gargoyle or otherwise, need to keep in mind; sunrise.
