Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [63]
She felt as if it was taunting her. Swimming out there like that, it looked as though it would stay just at the edge of the lights, so she couldn’t get a precise fix on its location.
Why was it coming back again?
Did it want more? Could it see her from where it swam? Did it feel the fury she felt at losing Cole to it?
The fin drifted away and then came zipping right back toward the boat. Twice more it did this and, each time, Annja wondered if she would need to brace for the impact of its body slamming into the hull of the boat.
But just as she thought it was going to impact, it would veer away and travel off on another tack.
Annja’s heart hammered in her chest. She wanted to kill that beast, the monster that had brought so much death in the short time she’d been on board the Seeker.
“Come a little closer,” Annja said quietly. “And I’ll happily cut you to ribbons with my sword.”
But the fin only drifted away from her and continued on its never-ending zigzag.
What the hell was going on here?
Annja willed the sword to manifest itself. Immediately, it was in her two hands, its shimmering blade casting off a pale luminescence in the ship’s light.
Annja felt strength flow into her limbs and she took a few practice swings with the sword, feeling the surge of energy in her system from holding it.
The fin cut by close again. Annja took a halfhearted swipe at it and then she laughed abruptly. “You’re damned lucky you’re out there and not on dry land. Otherwise, we’d be having a different conversation.”
She looked at the length of the blade in her hands and swung it overhead.
She felt the power of the sword as it sang through the air, cutting at wisps of nothing in the night sky. Annja spun the blade around and flipped it over. Somehow, she felt utterly indestructible.
The shark fin again came close to the ship and then veered away.
Annja watched it.
“Damn thing,” she said.
She wanted vengeance as badly as Hunter did. Annja saw the fin turn to head straight back at the ship.
Power flowed through every cell of her body. She felt electric.
Annja gripped the sword in both her hands, squeezing the hilt until she felt there was nothing that could wrest the blade from her grasp.
She leaped into the air, clearing the railing and the dive platform. She looked down and saw, for the first time, the entire length and girth of the massive shark.
And then she was plunging down faster and faster, through the air, directly at the back of the mighty beast.
She readied herself to drive the sword straight into its black heart.
25
At the last second, the shark veered, almost as if it could sense the attack coming at it from above. Annja tried to redirect herself but splashed down a second later. The abrupt shock of the cold water almost made her convulsively suck in water. But she surfaced and sputtered.
Annja bobbed in the waves, spinning around and searching for her target. She still held the sword in front of her, but she was immediately aware of how utterly exposed she was. Whenever she’d fought before, she’d only had to worry about people in front of her, behind her or to her sides.
Now she had to worry about being attacked from below.
And she could barely see anything in the darkness. The moon and the ship’s lights gave limited visibility.
Where was the shark?
Annja spun around in the water and kept checking herself. So far, the shark hadn’t attacked.
There was something different about this creature and Annja was determined to find out what it was. Right after she killed it.
She heard a splash to her right and she turned again, searching the darkness for the source of the noise.
She held the sword aloft and scanned the surface of the water. Annja saw the triangular dorsal cutting back and forth in the waves a hundred yards or so away from her.
She bobbed in the swells and considered her options. She could wait for the shark to notice her, if it hadn’t already.
Or she could attack it.
Annja paused for a moment, wondering how she had ended up in such an incredible