“That thing can’t crush the sub,” Michaela repeated to herself, hope stirring. As long as it had compressed air in the tanks, it could inflate the ballast tanks.

That’s when she straightened. Holding her broken arm, she made herself climb up on the transom and stare at the submarine bobbing in their wake. She could see spots of algae clinging to the hull. The mounting hardware for the port camera had been folded back, the forward mounting strut torn from its mount. She could see the damage to the number two tank. The valve was bent at an angle, the crack in the pipe visible even from where she perched.

The valve.

Casey had said they were at a forty-degree list, losing air.

The tank had been fine, it was built for pressure. But the valve? Nothing in the design parameters would have kept it from breaking off if something big hit it.

Michaela stumbled back to her seat. Casey was giving her a worried stare, maybe thinking the same thing. That they’d barely made it.

No monster lobster-clawed creature had been trying to break into their sub.

They’d only been bumped.

48

At a shallow slant, morning light shone through the dome window. Talina blinked awake from dreams filled with Dek Taglioni. Funny thing was, she knew which parts had been stimulated by Rocket’s TriNA, the parts that Demon had concocted, and which were inspired by her own desires.

Face it, woman. You like the guy.

Didn’t mean that Talina wasn’t wary. Kalico had always said that leopards didn’t change their spots, and Dek, in his own words, had been “a shit-sucking piece of work.” A monster. All that power and privilege, being trained to believe that the entire rest of humanity existed only to serve the wants and needs of the family. Didn’t matter who they hurt, who they abused, or who they destroyed in the process of their self-fulfillment.

No wonder Demon was so taken with him.

“Yesss. He’s perfect for you.”

“Eat shit and die, asshole.”

Demon chuckled in response.

“He’s worth fighting to save,” Rocket said from beside her pillow.

She glanced sidelong to Dek’s bed. The man slept with his head cocked, looking uncomfortable where she’d strapped him to the mattress.

Hard to believe he’d assented to the indignity, but not even Demon wanted to repeat the trip into the forest, only to wake up in some unknown place as a flock of mobbers descended out of the sky.

“Yeah, tie me.” Dek had given her a wink that flexed the scar on his cheek. “Not only will I awaken alive, but I’ll have the sexiest of dreams thinking about the woman I love and bondage.”

“You have got to be kidding.”