His jaw twitched and danced as we bobbed along in the water. We were being propelled by Raven's connection to the ocean, the lines of blue on his arm clear and bright. I looked over my shoulder, a sudden prickling along the back of my neck making me twitch. I leaned over the edge of the boat and stared into the water. Three dark shapes shot past us and I jerked back.
"What is that?" I stared at the trajectory of the shapes that were moving far too fast for any creature. Far too fast for anything I'd ever encountered. The warship behind us. The dark shapes in the water below.
"Talan."
"Yeah, this is going to be bad," he breathed.
"Raven, can you help me move the ship?" I stood and Raven stood with me.
"I don't know."
"I'll block the torpedoes; you move the ship." I grabbed his hand and opened myself to Spirit. "See if this helps." It was all I could think of doing. Maybe a boost of power would give him enough to move the boat, as I tapped into the earth to try and block the torpedoes.
"Holy shit," he hissed the words and then lifted his other hand. The ocean bucked upward in something that looked like an instant tidal wave. There was no warning, no precursor, just water bursting upward in a wall that lifted the ship off the sand pile I'd created that had held the ship in place as a perfect sitting duck.
The wave moved forward, shoving the massive ship ahead of it as I pushed upward with the sand bar I'd placed under the hull. My heart beat wildly as I fed my power into Raven, pushing for all I was worth while simultaneously moving the earth around, doing all I could to block the oncoming explosives.
"Enough, Lark, I can't hold that much." He was breathless, and I wanted nothing more than to take the reins of his power and do what had to be done. Because he hadn't moved the ship enough. I let go of his hand and called the sand up again, tried to block the torpedoes.
I felt them pass through the loose sand. I couldn't bring it together fast enough to even slow them down.
The bottom of the warship's hull took the first impact. There was a muted boom and the ship shuddered. The men screamed and then another boom, and another. All three torpedoes had hit their target.
"Guided missile systems," Talan said softly as the ship in front of us cracked and began a slow descent into the ocean. "The humans aren't just after us, they are after one another."
There was no thought to what I was going to do, but as I took a step toward the edge of the boat, Talan put his hand on my arm as if he'd read my mind. "The best way to help them is to stop Viv and this war. These men were on their way to face Finley and the Deep. Their deaths were already written."
"You want me to let them drown? Let them disappear into the depths?" I jerked away from him and he let out a sigh.
"Yes, it is a kinder fate than what is coming for them."
But the thing was, I couldn't get the face of the human man out of my mind, the one with the brown eyes who'd been willing to help me even though he was obviously outclassed. He'd offered when no one else had. That deserved an effort on our part to save lives.
I dove into the water and Peta leapt in after me. I felt her bond and knew at least I would never be alone, no matter the decisions I made.
I popped up through the surface of the water, took a breath and kept moving forward. Behind me there was another splash and in seconds Raven caught up to me.
"Why are you helping?" I asked as we headed toward the ship.
"Because you're right. You never know when someone might need us, and might in turn be the key to changing the world."
"That's not what I said." I kept swimming as we talked, mostly to keep my mind from disappearing into memories and the feeling of jaws on my legs, the feeling of not being able to breathe and air being so very, very close even while the water filled my body. My jaw twitched.
Another splash behind us. "I'm surprised Talan is coming along," I said.
"I am not in the water, and I suggest you two idiots get out," Talan called. "You cannot save these humans. Stop being childish."
I spun in the water and Peta kitty-paddled beside me. "Lark?"
"Yes?"
"I have a bad feeling about this."
Damn it, so did I.
CHAPTER 17
The thing was, water in general had not been kind to Peta nor me in all our adventures together. Maybe it was the feline nature in her, and the answering feline shifter nature in me. But water and what resided in it had always been an issue from the minute I'd stepped into the Deep the first time.