Page 56 of Great Service from Top to Bottom

As mad as I was at him, he was mine. I’d made a vow. His name was in the guest book. We were in this together, for better or worse.

His fingers slipped away.

I flipped, snatched his wrist, clutched him against my chest, and kicked harder through the endless pressure, trying to regain the precious seconds I’d just lost.

At some point, the volume of water in the tank must have risen to be level with the inflow, because the force of its onslaught slowed enough for me to make headway. Or at least, it felt as though we were making progress. Sight, sound, taste, touch, none of those senses worked in the dark, heavy waters. My only advantage was that while my glamor made my body seem small and insignificant, I was in fact the opposite. But I still had to breathe.

My heart thumped a warning. My lungs screamed. In the dark, there was little way of knowing if I was swimming the right way. Out. We just needed to get out.

I broke the surface and spluttered. Glorious air filled my lungs. I grasped the edge of some kind of platform, and shoved Victor’s limp body from the water. We’d emerged into another tank, this one far less tumultuous, and with a diving platform.

“Victor . . . ?” I clambered out of the water, knelt beside him, and pressed a hand to his chest.

Oh no.

He wasn’t breathing.

Straddling his hips, I grabbed his jacket and gave him a shake. “Victor!” We’d been under for a while. Hopefully, he just needed a little help to startle him back to consciousness. “Here goes . . .” I slapped his face. Hard.

His eyes popped open. He coughed up water and gulped air, and lay on his back under me, panting.

Okay. We were okay. But it had been closer than I’d have liked.

“Adam?” His trembling hand claimed my thigh.

I sighed. “Hey.”

“You saved my life. Forgive me⁠—”

“Nope. Not ready to hear it.” I clambered off, and ran my hands through my wet hair. “Can we go and find Tom now?”

“Indeed,” he croaked.

Sodden, sore, battered, and bruised, we staggered down a metal gangplank, away from the horrible fish tanks and into a gloomy doorway. The building was a maze of dark tunnels, ramps, and interconnecting corridors filled with eerie, moth-eaten displays, broken sealife models, and creepy dark voids.

I’d had friendlier nightmares.

“Voices,” Victor said, drawing me to a halt.

Low murmurings came from up ahead, where the gloom got gloomier.

Ugh. I folded my arms and tried to hug the shivering away. This was not how this operation was supposed to play out.

Victor’s firm hand squeezed my shoulder, making my wet shirt squelch.

The voices faded, moving away into a nearby room, but Victor’s hand remained. I lifted my gaze. In the dark, all I really saw was the outline of his face and the shine of his vampiric eyes.

“Forgive me, Adam, I am finding my way in all of this and apparently prone to missteps.”

“You could start by trusting me with the truth?”

“How can I, when you do not trust me with yours.”

“It’s not the same.” I tried to brush his hand off, but he pressed in, crowding closer “Victor⁠—”

“Adam.” His eyes shone. “All my life, I’ve been a tool for others—for the royal family, for my wife. Everything I have done, it’s been to better vampire supremacy. I’ve never known free will, to do or choose as I please. Until you. You mean more to me than my own future, or even the royal family whom I have served throughout the centuries, and I’m struggling to comprehend why that is, or what it means. But I do know one thing. I will never choose to hurt you.”

“I know.” I settled my hand on his and repeated, “I know, Victor.”