Children of the Sea 02 - Sea Fever

dragged Caleb’s body from the ocean bottom.
     
    This could not be easy for him.
     
    “Yes,” Dylan said.
     
    “Shit,” Caleb said again, wearily. He rubbed his face with his free hand. “So we’ve got some time.”
     
    “We have time. Regina may not.” A deep and unfamiliar fear settled in his bones. Dylan forced his mind away from it, struggled to focus on the next step. “We don’t know what this Jericho did with her before the demon left him. Or where it went. You must arrest the men outside, the ones he had contact with.”
     
    “I can watch them. I can’t arrest them. I need proof. Probable cause.”
     
    “I can scan them,” Dylan offered. “If any of them are possessed, I will know.”
     
    “It doesn’t matter a rat’s ass if they’re possessed. Not unless or until one of them breaks the law.”
     
    “I don’t care about human laws. Or humans either.” Only Regina.
     
    He shied away from the thought.
     
    “That was always your problem, bro.” Caleb slid an arm under the unconscious man.
     
    Dylan’s brows drew together. “What are you doing?”
     
    Caleb raised Jericho to a sitting position. “Getting him out of here.”
     
    “He won’t lead us to Regina. He can’t even answer questions.”
     
    “Not now,” Caleb agreed. “Maybe when he wakes up.”
     
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    “Not then either.” Dylan watched in annoyance as Caleb staggered to one knee— his good knee— cradling Jericho in his arms. “The demon probably wiped his memory.”
     
    “He’s still a human being. He needs help. Medical attention.”
     
    Dylan scowled. He was not his brother. He did not think about others’ needs.
     
    “That was always your problem, bro.”
     
    Caleb lurched and grunted in pain as his bad knee took the brunt of Jericho’s weight.
     
    Dylan’s mouth tightened. “Give him to me.”
     
    “I’ve got him.”
     
    Dylan blocked his brother’s way.
     
    Their gazes locked.
     
    Caleb’s eyes narrowed. Dylan didn’t know what his brother saw in his face, but after a moment Caleb sighed and surrendered Jericho’s body.
    “Don’t drop him.”
     
    “Thanks,” Dylan said dryly and took his brother’s burden.
     
    *
     
    Regina sucked in her breath. The water was really cold. It soaked her sneakers, swirled around her ankles, saturated her pant legs.
     
    She steeled herself to wade forward, ducking her head to avoid contact with the sloping ceiling. Her hands groped blindly, clutching at the rough rock with torn, tingling fingers. She was afraid of the water, of what might live in the water, unseen in the dark.
     
    She felt the tremors start deep in her bones. She was already freezing. The water would drop her body temperature even faster, like a turkey defrosting in the sink. She could get hypothermia. She could die.
     
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    Of course, she could die sitting on her ass in the dark waiting for somebody who never came.
     
    She gritted her teeth against the bone-biting cold and slid her feet forward over the uneven bottom. Holy Mary, Mother of God, don’t let me fall into a hole. Twist an ankle. Trip over a rock.
     
    Her feet were numb. She couldn’t feel her toes at all. The water crept up her knees, her thighs. How deep was it? She wished she had a stick to test the way, to probe the cold black void. If Jericho had come this way, he would have had a light. Boots. A hard hat.
     
    Maybe he hadn’t brought her in this way at all. But she’d already tried the tunnel on the other side. What was left?
     
    The cold hit her crotch, and her bladder couldn’t take it anymore. A cloud of pee released into the cold water. Regina shuddered in relief, standing in her own pee, warm around her freezing thighs. She forced herself to shuffle deeper into the water and the dark.
     
    The water level rose to her waist. To her ribs. She could feel a cold current around her ankles. Hope trickled in her chest. There was an opening somewhere. The water went somewhere. She strained her eyes in the dark. Silver spots and red webs floated on the face of the water, in the moist black air. The darkness was a thing, a barrier like the water, cold and choking. She waded through it, pushed against it, and smacked her head into the stone ceiling.
     
    Ow ow ow. Pain exploded, white stars and yellow bolts of pain. She doubled over and her face splashed in the water. She could not breathe.
    Panicked, she sputtered, gulped, gasped. She was pressed between the low hard ceiling and the