“And why would you do that?” he asked. “I thought you liked it around here.”
Thane closed his eyes for a second and pinged his message off Kino and the others beneath them.
“Keelan Kane is up here challenging us,” he told them. “But it’s strange. Almost like he’s buying time for something else.”
“We’ll keep our eyes open,” Kino replied.
“Push him in the water so I can bite his fucking head off,” Faith said.
“Nah,” Jagger said. “I called dibs on that a long time ago, remember?”
“I’m older and stronger,” Faith argued. “I always get dibs.”
“I’m bigger and meaner,” Rickshaw said, “So I do believe I get the dibs.”
“Concentrate,” Thane told them, not liking the sound of their silly banter.
“What are you doing here, Keelan?” Thane asked. “Shouldn’t you be out there protecting those kids on the barge out there? Drunk kids fall in the water all the time.”
“I only wanted to stop by and check on you folks,” Keelan said. “Why do I sense animosity here? You don’t like me or something?”
Before Thane had the opportunity to answer, a blood curdling scream rang through the night air. It came from the direction of the party barge.
“What was that?” Keelan asked.
“I fucking told you!” Thane said. “Evelyn. She must be at the barge.”
“Who?” Keelan asked.
“The woman you were fucking earlier!” Thane yelled at him. “She’s a shark shifter, you fucking moron. And she’s over there right now killing kids.”
For the first time, Keelan looked concerned. It might have even been fear on his face, probably from unknowingly allowing himself to be duped into wasting time stopping Thane’s boat while Evelyn and her gang turned a college party into a buffet.
“Shit!” Keelan said as he turned his boat around and sped toward the barge.
“Kino, Faith, everyone, Evelyn is attacking that party barge!” Thane said mentally to his group. “You have to save those kids.”
“Fuck,” Thane said.
“Go help them,” Penny said. “I’ll be fine.”
“It could be part of her plan,” Thane said. “If I leave you, she could…”
“I don’t think so,” Penny said. “This was the plan. She wants those kids. Shit…”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Sylvia’s on that barge!” Penny said. “She invited me earlier. She’s over there. Please! Go! Poet’s with me. Go!”
Thane kissed her forehead gently and then ran toward the edge of the boat. His body exploded as he dove through the air. His shattered bone pieces morphed into the shark in midair and then he hit the water, soaring through it and heading towards all the screams and all the blood.
Kino and the others were way ahead of him.
“It’s a fucking massacre,” Kino said mentally.
“Penny’s friend is there,” Thane informed them. “We have to stop them.”
He could sense the blood in the water. He could smell it, and his stomach growled the way it always did when he got a whiff of raw meat.