“No matter what, keep your head down and hold on to me!” Jack shouted at Dylan.
Charlie’s scream caught in her singed throat as her burnt hair whipped against her face and her tattered clothes buffeted her. Plumes of white sprayed the air as waves crashed against the cliffs with a roaring echo that rivaled the cacophony of the fire.
They weren’t as high up as they’d been the last time they’d gone over the cliffs. The impact with the ocean wouldn’t hurt as bad, but she hated the frothing waves beneath her.
Dylan!Below her, and a little in front, she watched Jack and her son fall. Jack had run further out over the edge than her; he was a good ten feet ahead of her and a few feet below. A scream lodged in her throat when he hit the water and the ocean swallowed him like a shark enclosing its jaws around a seal.
Charlie had less than a second to panic before the impact of the icy water knocked the air from her lungs and pummeled her raw skin. As bubbles of air burst from her lips, she waved her arms and kicked her legs to propel herself toward the surface, but a wave rolled over her and spun her away.
When the wave finally released her, she didn’t know which way was up and which was down as water churned around her. She figured out which way to go when another wave caught her and propelled her backward. She fought against it, but her vampire strength was no match for the power of the sea, and the wave smashed her against the cliffs.
An involuntary cry tore from her when the blow cracked one of her ribs, but that rib was the least of her troubles as water flooded her mouth. Charlie tried to spit it out, but it was too late; the ocean would not be denied.
Water clogged her windpipe until she couldn’t take it anymore and inhaled. A vise squeezed her chest as her lungs protested the entrance of anything other than the oxygen they craved. She heaved as she tried to expel the water, but all she got was more water inside her. It felt like someone was piercing her lungs with foot-long needles.
You won’t die. You won’t die.
The words became a mantra in her head as she tried to control her terror. However, as the blackness of the ocean swirled around her and the waves continued to roll over her, her panic started to spiral out of control. She may not die, but she would suffer, and if she didn’t get out of here, she would drown for an eternity.
The only thing that kept her from completely losing her mind was knowing Dylan was with Jack. Jack wouldn’t let go of him; he would keep him safe and get him out of this.
She kicked against the water, or at least she thought she did. Were her legs moving? She had no idea anymore.
Looking down, or maybe she was looking up at her legs, she willed them to kick, but they flapped uselessly in the water as another wave lifted her and spun her around. Maybe she wouldn’t die, but she’d lost control of her body.
Light burst before her eyes as neurons misfired in her brain. The light grew until she was standing before the sun with her palms out to absorb the warmth she craved. Feeling like a plant, she lifted her face to the sun, but no matter how much of her body she exposed to its heat, ice continued to creep through her veins. That ice encased all her extremities until they were nothing more than concrete blocks dragging her down.
Then reality returned as she found herself back beneath the rolling waves. The light was gone, but the pain and cold remained.Hallucinating. I’m hallucinating.
She still had enough of her senses left to realize that even with the water in her lungs, her body was healing, dying, and healing itself again. As the realization came, the bursts of light returned as she started dying once more.
Jack!His name was a cry of hope in her head. He had to get Dylan out of here, get him to safety, and make sure he stayed alive before he came back for her. But what if he couldn’t find her?
She had no idea where she was anymore or what was happening to her as she found herself standing at the gates of Heaven. But would they open? Would they let her in? Would she be deemed worthy now that she was an immortal? She’d killed. They may have been Savages she took down, but she stole their lives from them.
Then the gates started cracking open, and the light grew brighter until she had to turn away before her eyes burned out of her head.
No one looks on the face of God.
She almost laughed at the crazy thought, but laughter would have allowed more water in, and as the light faded away, her knowledge of what was happening to her returned. She was healing again.
Had it been a hallucination, or had she really been standing at the gates of Heaven? Was she about to be judged when her healing ability saved her from death and possible damnation?
She’d never know the answer, and as another wave battered her against the cliffs, she realized death and damnation were better than an eternity of drowning beneath the ocean waves.
Chapter Forty-Three
“Charlie! Mike!”Jack shouted while he spun to search the tumultuous sea. The waves crashing around him and the water spraying his face made seeing anything almost impossible, but he didn’t hear any shouts from either of them. “Charlie! Mike!”
“Charlie!”he blasted her name into her mind, but though he could still feel her, he received no response.
Dylan lifted his head from Jack’s shoulder and pulled the shirt off before dropping his head again. When the waves caught the shirt and pulled it away from them, Jack couldn’t tear his eyes from it until it vanished. These waves could have taken Charlie and Mike anywhere.
“Where’s my mom?” Dylan murmured.
“I don’t know,” Jack said as he ran his hand reassuringly over Dylan’s back.
“We have to… we have… to… find… her,” Dylan stammered out between his chattering teeth.
