Nita didn’t really know what she considered Mirella. They’d been prisoners together. They’d escaped together. When Nita had blown up the market, Mirella had slaughtered those who tried to escape. They were allies.
But Nita didn’t know if they were friends. Nita had befriended Kovit, even though he’d tortured Mirella. And when she thought about that too hard, thought about the way Mirella would react if she ever learned that, something painful and guilty bit into her conscience.
But Nita wondered about Mirella. About what happened after they parted ways that final time on the river.
Hesitating, Nita pulled up her phone. Even though she knew there was probably nothing, she Googled Mirella anyway. She nearly dropped her phone when she saw the results.
She clicked the first article. Amazon River being held hostage by dolphins.
Pods of pink dolphins have been disrupting trade along the Amazon River, resulting in a total shutdown of trade routes and passenger shuttles.
Nita skipped down to a video. She put the phone on mute and turned the subtitles on.
There was Mirella. She wore a black eyepatch like a pirate, and her hair was a much brighter pink than Nita had ever seen it. It was tied back harshly, so her cheekbones seemed more prominent.
“We will not allow transit to continue along the Amazon River until the governments of Peru, Colombia, and Brazil agree to crack down on black market traders operating in their countries.” The subtitles scrolled below in English and Spanish. “Far too many unnaturals are being exploited, and it’s time for it to end.”
Nita paused the video and stared at Mirella’s determined face, her chin tilted high, her remaining eye vivid and clear and alive.
When Mirella had told Nita she wouldn’t let the black market return, Nita had never imagined something so dramatic. But she had to hand it to Mirella, it was an effective strategy. Cutting off a major trade route? Getting international publicity?
Maybe she’d get people to listen.
Or maybe someone would get impatient and order men in helicopters with machine guns to kill all the dolphins in the Amazon River.
Nita pushed the thought from her head and put the phone back on the table, thinking about Mirella and how she’d used her power to hold something for ransom. How she’d taken things others needed to get something she needed.
So many ways to make people respect you. So many types of power. Which kind did Nita need to be left alone?
Kovit came out from the shower, hair dripping, and saw her expression. “Something up?”
Nita shook her head and cleared her thoughts. “No, nothing.” Then she frowned. “Can you see if there’s mouthwash in the bathroom?”
Kovit raised an eyebrow. “Mouthwash?”
Nita scowled. “My mouth tastes disgusting.”
“Water?”
“Hasn’t helped.” Nita rolled her spit around in her mouth.
Kovit’s eyebrows were still raised, waiting.
Nita sighed. “Gold caught me earlier and bound my hands. I spat stomach acid on her so she’d release me.”
“You barfed on her?” A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.
“No. Concentrated stomach acid isn’t the same—”
Kovit’s smile broadened into a full out grin. “You barfed on her.”
Nita rolled her eyes. “Sure. Yes. Whatever.”
Kovit laughed, hands over his stomach.
“I don’t see why it’s so funny,” she said, but even as the words left her mouth, she couldn’t help the smile curling her lips.
He just shook his head, still grinning.
His hair tumbled across his face and he brushed it out of his eyes with long fingers. They looked like they belonged on an artist.
She supposed he did play an instrument, though only he’d consider screams music.
She swallowed, wishing she could use mouthwash on her brain.
Her father had always told her that if she had bad thoughts and regretted them, they weren’t really bad thoughts, they were just imagination getting away from her. She’d watched Jurassic Park at age eight, and told him the best part was when the lawyer got eaten and then felt bad. Which, in hindsight, was ridiculous, because it wasn’t even real.
But even then, she’d been bloodthirsty.
Her father had said that everyone had bad thoughts and liked bad things, they just didn’t like to admit it. It wasn’t what you thought but what you did that mattered.
Nita’s chest tightened at the thought of him, and her hands trembled.
A wave of grief crashed through her. She’d been so busy, so focused, she hadn’t thought about her father since yesterday. It felt like a complete betrayal. Like by forgetting her grief she was forgetting him.
Fractured images of her father flitted through her mind before she seized on one. It was a summer day, and Nita couldn’t have been more than six. He held her up and twirled her around and around until the world spun and his smile was the only constant. It looked slightly crooked because his left eyetooth was slanted, but it was big and warm and genuine. Her giggles clung to the air like bubbles.
“Nita, are you okay?” Kovit asked, leaning close.
Nita blinked, and wiped away the tears she hadn’t noticed. She swallowed. There were no great heaving sobs this time, no seizure-like shaking. Her grief came quiet and small, tiptoeing in and gently trailing its fingers along her memories.
“It’s nothing,” she whispered.
“It’s clearly not.” Kovit’s voice was gentle.
A small sound broke from her and she crawled over and curled up against him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as the swell of grief washed over her like a tidal wave. He didn’t know why she was crying, but he held her anyway, and Nita loved him for that.
Eventually, it passed, her sobs stilling into silence, until the only motion was her slow breathing, and her fingers clinging to the fabric of Kovit’s shirt, pressing his body close to hers. The warmth of him helped a little. She didn’t know why warmth helped, but it did.
Kovit touched her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
Nita swallowed, forcing back the snot collecting in her nose and the back of her throat, just waiting for her to start crying again.
“I’m fine.” Her voice was hoarse.
“Really, Nita?” Kovit gestured to her tear-streaked face. “That’s the line you’re going with?”
She snorted.
“You wanna talk about it?”
“My father.” She swallowed, the words catching in her throat. “I found out when I was in INHUP. He was murdered.”
A hand, warm and gentle, linked through her own, and she looked up at Kovit. She was pressed against him, and looking up made their faces inches from each other. She could see the way his lashes curled softly, and that his eyes weren’t black, just a very dark brown.
“I’m so sorry, Nita.” His voice was soft, and she could feel the tickle of air against her skin. “Do they know who murdered him?”
She nodded. “You remember the vampire that came to see me in the market? The one with the zebra-striped hair?”
“Him?” Kovit frowned. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” Nita sighed. “I thought maybe he was working for Fabricio’s dad? Getting vengeance for his son?”