“I have something better.”
Polidori didn’t squirm in his grip or even try to get away. “Don’t hurt yourself. You get those gears in that skull turning too quickly, something important might catch fire.”
“Indeed, Doctor. Indeed,” he agreed jovially.
He hurled John Polidori over the side of the boat.
“You’re not really going to leave me here, are you?” John said when he surfaced, treading water.
“It is fair. You left Elizabeth drowning in a sea of death. I will leave you here.” He nodded.
“I can’t drown.” John looked smug.
“No, but you can wish you could.” Adam called on the electric current and stuck his hands into the water. “There is a little known species of eel—”
“Oh for fuck’s sake. Electric eels are freshwater, air-breathing—”
“Let me finish. There’s a little known species of eel that lives in the deep ocean. It tolerates both the darkest depths and the surface surprisingly well. Most animals that live that deep die on the surface. Not these guys. They grow to lengths of twenty to fifty feet. I discovered them after Mary had me hammered into a coffin and dumped at sea. They were drawn to my electricity. They think I’m one of theirs.” Adam laughed as he watched the terror wash over Polidori.
“You’re immortal. They could drag you down so far, the pressure of the water could crush even your bones. And they’ll keep you there. That’s where you’ll spend your eternity, in the bellies of eels. Unless you start swimming now.”
Polidori composed himself and raised a brow. “You sir, are a motherfucker of the lowest caliber.”
“No, I don’t abandon helpless women during a zombie apocalypse of my own making. That is a motherfucker of the lowest caliber.” He cocked his head. “Oh, what’s that? They’re coming. I can feel it.”
“Damn you, Adam. I saved her! I helped you!” he snarled.
“Perhaps you did. And that’s the only reason that I didn’t tear your limbs from your body and reattach them with your own intestines. Enjoy your swim to shore, Doctor.” Adam winked at him and went to engage the engine.
He couldn’t go back to Trieste, not now. So it was on to warmer waters and maybe a beach where he would dream of Elizabeth and wait until the time was right to find her.
Even though she’d released him from the curse, she was part of him still. He’d always know where to find her.
“Find me,” he replayed her whisper in his ear as sailed away from Polidori, from Bureau 7, from all the darkness that had always plagued him.
He may have left her behind, in a way, he was still sailing toward her. Toward their future together.
Toward home.
*
Elizabeth was in a helicopter next to “Mad Dog” Whitman when the installation lit up the night sky. Fireworks exploded around them in a bright, colorful display. The populace had been told it was a planned entertainment, but it was to mask the utter and absolute destruction of the compound.
“It just came over the wire, Dr. Wollstonecraft.” The SWAT commander nodded. “They’ve captured the X operative in Turkey. I thought you’d like to know.”
Elizabeth nodded. “After the mayhem she caused, I hope they throw her in the deepest, loneliest, blackest pit.”
“And if they gave you the key to this pit?” The corner of her full mouth turned up with a smirk.
“I’d give it to a rusalka.”
Mad Dog laughed. “Hardcore. I respect that. I’m sure the information extraction process will be painful for her, if that makes you feel any better.”
“I wish I could say it did. I mean, you know, kind of.” She gave the other woman a lopsided grin. “But it doesn’t undo all the harm she did. The people’s lives she destroyed. The resources we’ve lost.”
“Maybe it’s not all bad. You’ve got the survivors who were able to be evacuated.” Her dark brown eyes narrowed. “What’s that scar on your arm? It looks like a bite.”
Elizabeth smiled at her. “It is.”
Mad Dog lived up to her name, and she pulled out her glock and held it to Elizabeth’s head. “You better start talking.”
“I’m immune.”
“You could have a secondary infection. You could—”
“I don’t. My last name is Wollstonecraft.”
“I don’t give a good goddamn what your last name is, lady.”
Elizabeth tried to think of a way to distill the information without revealing too much about Adam. “The people who are in those cages recovering? It’s because one of them bit me. The cure is in my blood.”
She eyed her. “Should’ve known you had some shit, what with your stripes in your hair like Frankenstein’s Bride.”