"So?" Travis snapped, looking like he wanted to murder the professor.
"So... I think Rossiter's in there."
At once, the captain and Izabel charged out. When MacRieve cracked open an eye and muttered to Lucia, "Go. Like that mortal," she ran after them, hurrying to the engine room.
She found the captain straining to move the beam, his head bandage already saturated with red. Schecter was worthless. Izabel was gone, no doubt "looking" for Charlie.
"Here, let me help!" Lucia said. Acting as if she struggled, she wrenched the beam away, then dashed forward to open the hatch. When steaming fumes gusted out from within, she coughed, waving her hand in front of her face.
Once the miasma cleared, she saw Rossiter on his hands and knees clawing his way up the steps. He was shirtless, covered in grease and sweat, and up to his waist in water. He also looked drunk from fumes, his eyes bloodshot.
As Lucia rushed down to help him up, she spied a line of oil residue high on the wall from where the water had risen. "The water got that high?" If so, then the ship had been sinking.
Rossiter rasped, "I was singularly motivated... to keep the pumps running."
She couldn't imagine how terrifying that would have been for him - a mortal trapped with little light, the water rising, knowing he was about to drown.
Travis said, "If not for you, we'd have gone down." Over his shoulder, he added, "All because of the giant f**king caimans!"
Everyone on board hated Schecter, but Rossiter had the most reason to. Aside from his harrowing night, the doctor's mission was now finished - with no hope for finding his orchid. Schecter might just have killed him.
Once they got Rossiter back on the deck, his wild-eyed gaze landed on Schecter. With a maddened bellow, the doctor attacked.
46
"I haven't seen a punch like that in ages," Lucia said as she entered the wheelhouse. Chizabel was piloting the boat into a dramatic orange sunset.
The already cracked windshield had been no match for caiman attacks, and now as the wind streamed in, her long black hair flowed behind her. Izabel was so feminine; you'd never know she was half-man.
"And then when Doc Rossiter kept beating Schecter?" Izabel said. "I never knew the expression beating the piss out of someone was literal."
"I meant to step in and break it up sooner. Really I did," Lucia said. "So where's Travis?"
"Capitão's sleeping in his cabin. Rossiter shot him up with some morphine."
The doctor had wanted to examine MacRieve as well, but Lucia had insisted his wounds were superficial, assuring Rossiter, You'll see him up and running in no time.
"Is MacRieve still alive?"
"He's resting, too." The Scot had been passed out again but was regenerating nicely. "Prognosis is good."
Izabel raised her brows at that. All the humans had thought he was surely at death's door.
Lucia guessed she and Izabel would dance around the subject of her being part man a little longer. So she stared at the sun over the water. As distraught as she'd been just this morning, Lucia was now filled with hope.
In her possession was a dieumort, which moved her one step closer to freeing herself from Cruach. And one step closer to a future with MacRieve, the Lykae who'd somehow gone from enemy to lover to love of her life.
But she wasn't prepared for MacRieve just yet. Earlier, on the ride back to the Contessa, Lucia had feared he would ask her to marry him. Though it wasn't necessarily the Lykae way, he'd told her she'd be his wife one day. And if he'd proposed, what could she have said? Rain check? Let me get back to you when I'm a widow.
Now, in a matter of days, she could return to the Scot - free at last. Free of Skathi and Cruach. "How much longer until we get back?" Lucia asked.
"Four days. Max."
"You know the way?"
Izabel glared. "Better than anybody on this river," she answered. "So Capitão told me about your night. Damiãno really attacked you? I knew he was louco!"
"In a big way."
"Travis said the robed men were religious fanatics after some relic you and MacRieve found."
"That's it exactly. I'm just glad we made it out alive." Lucia pulled up another stool. "So, last night was revealing in a lot of ways." Rossiter was a hero, Schecter a criminally irresponsible scientist, Izabel part... guy. "You want to tell me what's going on? Are you human?"
Izabel gazed around as if she were being pranked. "Uh, yes. I am. Is there another option?"
Lucia answered with a question: "So do you know why you're... like you are?"
"I was cursed by what I can only figure was an evil woman. Voodoo, Santeria, who knows?" She frowned. "How come you're not freaking out?"
"I was rattled at first. But I've always believed in the supernatural, so I got over it soon enough," Lucia answered. "So when did Izabel Carlotta became Isabel and Charlie?"
Izabel sighed. "Two years ago, I'd just gotten dumped by my first love, and I was drinking and wished with all my heart that I knew why men thought the way they did. This strange, mesmerizing woman told me she could answer my question. The next morning I woke up hungover. Oh, and a man."
Evil sorceress, had to be.
"I came to the Amazon, hoping to find a cure or an explanation."
A cure wasn't likely. Sorceress spells tended to stick, unless lifted by another one of equal or greater power. Lucia knew a witch - Mariketa the Awaited, a party-hearty mercenary of the Wiccae - who could possibly nullify it, but she'd had her hellacious powers bound for fifty years, until she could better handle them. Izabel was doubtless stuck like this for the duration.
"Can you switch back and forth at will?" When Izabel nodded, Lucia asked, "Are you going to tell Travis? It's only a matter of time before he figures it out."
Izabel's eyes watered. "He'll never understand. I'm leaving as soon as I get him to the hospital."
Poor girl. Before she would've been thrilled that Izabel was leaving Travis. Now Lucia resented the fact that the girl felt she had to.
What's with all the sympathy I'm feeling for humans? Maybe Lucia should open up a stray shelter for mortals. Feed them kibble. "Iz, you need to give him a chance. He might surprise you."
"It's not that easy. You see, 'Charlie' needs love, too. And Travis... there's just no way."
"If you can change back and forth, then just stay in your female form."
"It makes me sick when I don't change into Charlie enough and vice versa."