Heaven Sent

Chapter Twelve

Elijah

"How do you not check the oil before embarking on a trip?"

My fingers screw the stubborn cap closed while three dubious vampires look on, eager to see me finish the job.

Jiayi pats my shoulder. "You might find his hard to believe, my friend, but it's a rare day for me when I smuggle three vampires and a goddess into barred military camps. I know how to steer and coast to a stop. That is about the extent of my knowledge."

I straighten, cleaning off my hands with a small towel. "When were you changed?"

Jiayi lowers the motor. "1772."

"250 years..."

"Judge me all you want," he laughs, "I despise boats."

Slowly but surely warming to the relatively unskilled creature, I nudge my chin towards the wheel. "Let's get this moving. We're ought to be discovered any moment if we remain much longer."

Jiayi places himself behind the wheel, scanning the dashboard for normalcy. Paris and Damien begin to drag the anchor from the river. It's while I'm watching them that I become conscious how eerily quiet it is out in this wilderness.

Too quiet.

"Can you..." I scan our surroundings with a sharper eye. "Can you hear Cassandra?"

"She's fine. Probably sleeping," Paris says, dropping the anchor down into the boat with a loud thud. Maybe it's an overreaction. Maybe I'm being ridiculous.

I can live with that.

I walk to the door leading below, bending to heave it open. It fights against my pulling without even a budge, stunning me and the rest of the crew.

Silence befalls the deck.

"I didn't think that door could lock..." Jiayi says slowly.

Oh, God in heaven.

Fear comes over me in a wave of unease.

"... It doesn't."

With both hands now, I tug on the handle repeatedly, aware the hinges should have broken off under duress. There's something forbidding me from entering. Paris and Jiayi hastily join me while Damien searches for another way down. A window, anything.

"I can't hear her," I growl through my teeth, becoming violently unnerved.

I should be able to hear her pulse.

"It's not working," Paris shouts, pushing back. Jiayi follows. "Damien! Tell me you found a way in!"

"The windows won't budge either!"

Abandoning the door, enraged enough to begin peeling the floorboards, I'm met with only steel surfaces. I shout her name, knowing full well she's unable to hear it.

"Elijah, we can't get in. Maybe it's Jehovah. Maybe it isn't—"

I look at him.

Damien diverts his gaze, accepting my fury.

We both know it isn't Jehovah.

I can sense filth nearby.

Jiayi places a hand on my shoulder. "Listen, we're going to have to wait. We have no tools to break through. Any damage to the lower level from the outside could affect the mainframe of the boat. There's nothing we can do."

Like hell.

Fury makes my usually languid muscles tighten, tensing for a fight. I leap back to the door, wrapping my hands around the handle, placing the base of my boot against the wall as I heave, and heave, and heave... until the handle snaps under the pressure, knocking me a few steps backward.