Page 59 of Consume
I smiled. “It’s like you know me.”
We headed toward theVicious’s second floor dining room, and there were so many of us, we couldn’t all pack inside the same elevator. This was the way it should be, a ship full of heart and family and happy tears, and our numbers were about to grow. I stood on the elevator hand in hand with the father of my unborn daughter on one side and my pregnant sister on the other resting her head against my shoulder. My chest swelled with love until I feared I might pop, and I couldn’t speak. No one else seemed to be able to either.
Near the dining room, below the blinking light, a red rubber ball skipped past me. It hit the wall at the end of the hallway and then rolled toward the elevator. Seconds later, claws scraped over metal, and a blue furball with arms and legs swinging from the grated ceiling shot toward us. A grin stretched across the slothcat’s face when she saw me, and she stopped to gently cup my cheek with her claws.
“Hey, girl. I missed you too.”
She looked her sweet, innocent self once again when no longer dripping in someone else’s blood. Not quite as terrifying, but I’d forever be grateful I wasn’t on her bad side.
“There’s not a scratch on you, is there?”
Ellison reached up to scratch Jezebel’s chin. “Turns out I’m an okay vet.”
“Lies.” Josh dropped a kiss on the top of Ellison’s head. “Not just okay. Amazing as always. Jezebel was in pretty bad shape.”
Jezebel dropped to all fours to skitter after the ball. Seconds later, she galloped by with the ball in her mouth down the empty hallway and set it down in front of the closed dining room door. A dark puff of smoke appeared there and took the round shape of Randolph.
“Good to see you, Randolph,” I said.
A slight breeze scented with earthy river beans wafted over my face, and I smiled into it, grateful for his comfort, yet wishing he were actually here. Smiling, he shoved his energy into the ball and leaped it toward the far corner into another hallway. Jezebel tore after it.
I laughed at their adorable game. The ease of it took me by surprise, and it bounced lightly against the walls as if the ship itself didn’t quite know what to make of the sound. It was usually screams echoing through the halls and inside my head. Now, it was peaceful. Finally.
The elevator dinged, and light footsteps approached. My gaze settled on a large man with a mustache and girly hands. Moon, the best roommate/public defender I could ever have.
“Welcome home.” The deep voice that came out of him didn’t belong. He cleared his throat as he unclasped the choker chain at his throat. “I mean welcome home.”
“Bravo, roomie.”
She bowed and then ran toward me, ditching her mustache and wig as she went. “I promise I hosed myself down after sewer time. Do I smell?”
I hugged her to me and breathed in the clean scent of hope and the future. “Not even a little bit.”
Chapter Seventeen
Icould hardly believeit had all really happened. I told them about the ghosts controlling me, that it was me—and wasn’t me—who cut the fuel lines. When I came to the part in my tale about reading the markings in the Saelises’ book room, I stopped and gazed down at Mase’s hand wrapped tightly in mine. Everyone here—all but Crispin and the captain’s wife and daughter—held still and silent, waiting for me to continue. They didn’t have any reason to doubt me at this point. The book I’d taken was still at the police station, not that it would’ve proved anything since I could barely read it, but still. Things were about to get weirder.Iwas about to get weirder. To the people I loved, anyway.
