Drake Sisters 07 - Hidden Currents

could snap.
    Jackson pushed off the bottom and began to swim perpendicular to the shore. It was difficult to figure out exactly where he was when he’d been spinning and tumbling. The rope stretched taut and he applied a little pressure, knowing Abbey was far more familiar with the sea and its dangers than most people. She was a marine biologist and spent a great deal of her time underwater. There wouldn’t be any panicking for Abigail.
    He felt the rope slacken and immediately she brushed his leg, indicating she was swimming with him. They should have been able to pul out of the undertow, but another powerful backwash caught them again. Jackson had the impression of a bowler striking, using the hidden current to take them down and under. They rol ed together this time, Jackson and Abigail gripping each other’s arms and thighs to try to lessen the damage. Again he pushed off the floor, using the strength of his legs. There were sometimes rip currents aplenty along the northern coastline, but not this—not an undertow.
    Gratsos had attacked.
    Something large and heavy bumped them. He drew away, but Abigail reached out eagerly. He realized the dolphin was back and she’d seized the fin. Kiwi used his powerful body to drag them out of the undertow and back up toward the surface. The water sucked at them for a moment and then they were swimming free.
    It seemed to take forever to rise to the surface. When he broke through the water and looked around, the dory was a good distance away and the wind had kicked up the waves to several feet high. They began to swim in the trough between waves. Something brushed his hand as he pul ed on a downstroke. Abigail gasped.
    â€œLook out, Jackson. Oh my God. Stay stil for a moment.â€
    He did so, swiveling around, trying to make out what had upset her. Al around them, like a forest of giant mushrooms, jel yfish floated up from the bottom, hundreds of them. He’d never seen them so large. He’d been in the ocean often enough to see wide populations of jel yfish moving through the water, but none like these. The pink mushroom caps were large, like strange monsters of the deep. Tentacles stretched out in the water from so many jel yfish moving together, the long feelers created a forest of toxic limbs reaching for anything unsuspecting in their path.
    â€œDon’t touch the tentacles,†Abbey cautioned.
    â€œHow the hel am I supposed to do that?†Jackson demanded, turning around, searching for a way through the dense field. “What are these things?â€
    â€œJel yfish, an entire army of them. I swear they’re trying to find us, and they aren’t supposed to do that.â€
    â€œFucking tel that to them, Abbey, because they don’t seem to know it. How are we getting out of here?â€
    They tried not to move because the slightest wiggle of an arm or leg brought the creatures closer, as if the movement of their bodies drew attention to them.
    â€œDo you feel the energy surrounding them?†Abigail asked.
    Waves splashed over him and he nearly choked. When he could, he shook his head careful y. “No. But if there’s psychic energy it has to be that bastard coming at us.â€
    â€œWe have no choice but to fight fire with fire,†she said.
    â€œNot El e, Abbey. She’l burn herself out. She needs to rest.â€
    â€œThe rest of us don’t. And he’s not getting our sister—or you.†Abigail splashed water with the flat of her hand in disgust, directing it away from them and watching the jel yfish swarm where the water fel . “El e could total y kick this amateur’s ass if she was at ful strength.â€
    They bobbed in the waves, trying not to move too much. “So how do we get out of here, Abbey? You’re the expert.â€
    â€œWe can’t go below, they’re coming up from below us. He’s set some sort of a trap, but as you can see, it’s not specific toward us.
    He’s using the traces of psychic energy to trigger his attacks. I was using it on Boscoe, both to calm him and to heal him. I didn’t want him getting infections.†It was difficult to talk and both were getting tired, trying to let the waves come and go without throwing them around. Abbey looked toward her home.
    Almost at once Jackson could feel a subtle difference in the wind. It shifted direction, a soft ruffling rather than a roar,