A Soul's Surrender (The Voodoo Revival Series Book 2)

by Victoria Flynn

  “Will you please explain to me what Legba meant? All of this is just so much. It’s…overwhelming and confusing.”

  “Understandable. Why don’t you tell me what your thoughts are and I will fill in any gaps, hmm?”

  I nodded. “I’m not sure specifically. All I know is how I feel. I’m different now…changed. Everything is stronger, sharper. I’m stronger. Then there’s this new bond I feel. I know it’s silly. I’m sorry. I’m being ridiculous. Just ignore my rambling,” I babbled on. With a deep gulp of rum, I silenced my chattering lips. It burned down my throat with its smooth flavor, warming my insides as I went. I was waiting for the boldness that usually came with it, but I hadn’t found it yet. “What changed?”

  He pointed to the necklace fastened tightly around my neck. “It’s complicated, but the gist of it is that necklace binds us. You could not marry me and hold the position you do without becoming, well, like me.” He turned me around and guided me backwards to where the full length mirror hung in the bathroom. “Are you ready?”

  I took a deep breath and nodded.

  When he spun me back around, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He still looked every bit like himself. The difference was me. I had a glow to me that hadn’t been there before. It was the same one that the temptress in the box had.

  “Am I…a Loa?” I was in disbelief.

  His coy grin turned into a full blown Cheshire cat grin. “Yes.”

  Holy shit.

  Questions raced through my head too fast to articulate.

  “Why, why do I not look like you?” I asked, pointing to his half skeletal face.

  “You weren’t born into this. That amulet binds our power jointly. What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours.”

  I felt like my head was spinning with the revelation and I slumped down onto the edge of the bath tub, my weak knees no longer capable of holding me up. He’d bound our magic. It explained why I suddenly felt so much stronger. I was, and I had full access to all of his.

  “You’re immortal and just as bound to this place as I am.”

  “Is that what Legba meant by saying, I’d be more at home?”

  He nodded.

  I downed the last of my glass and teetered to my feet. I pushed past him and made my way to the bar cart again. I poured my glass three quarters full and tipped it back, slugging down a large mouthful of the amber ambrosia. It felt like it was the only thing keeping me grounded for the time being. I needed time to process everything. Not just the revelation that I was now a Loa and the newest member of the Ghede family, but all the events of the past several days.

  I stalked towards the sofa, my dress swishing and rustling with the sway of my hips. The damn thing was uncomfortable and I longed for the comfort of a pair of jeans or yoga pants.

  The Baron stood silently in the doorway, not moving to join me and generously giving me the space I desperately needed. I was grateful for the small mercy. The box and its contents drifted back to me. I knew I couldn’t just ask him what happened to it. He’d never tell me anyways, yet, his actions weren’t consistent with someone who was suspicious of me. Or so I thought.

  I watched as he emptied his own glass and then poured himself another. Was he as uneasy as I was?

  A loud knock at the door disrupted my thoughts and the Baron straightened immediately. Glancing at me, he made his way to the door and swung it wide open to reveal Papa Legba standing there looking rather sheepish.

  “I’m sorry. I was just under orders to ensure that things progressed…as they should.” His eyebrows raised, looking back and forth between Samedi and myself.

  He wasn’t honestly suggesting we jump into bed together that quickly, was he?

  He cleared his throat. Yes, that’s exactly what he was suggesting, much to my own disbelief.

  “Get the hell out of here,” Samedi said and slammed the door in his face.

  I couldn’t believe the audacity Legba had to come to my room to ensure the deed had been done when he knew exactly how I felt about the whole situation. Apparently, Samedi felt the same way about the intrusion. His face betrayed every ounce of the irritation he was feeling and for the first time, I wasn’t scared of him when he was like that. It wasn’t aimed at me in any way, so I was relatively safe.

  I sauntered over to the sofa and plopped down, feeling rather sheepishly awkward and uncomfortable. I hadn’t realized so much pressure was resting on this being every bit a real and consummated marriage. It didn’t help that I knew first hand that there was no longer a single person who I could trust. I wasn’t so naïve as to think that marriage would change things that much between the Baron and myself. After all, he’d likely stolen that box out of my room himself. If that was the case, he knew that I knew certain things which could be damaging for him. How far would he go to ensure that such information would never come to light?

  Samedi gave the door another irritated glare. He huffed out an exasperated breath and came to sit down beside me. He eyed me with renewed interest then let his head fall back on to the cushion behind him.

  “I’m sorry. You didn’t sign up for all of this,” he said, pointing to the locked door.

  “I sort of did. It’s just, I didn’t really realize what all it entailed.” I had blindly made a deal to save Rhys and this was my consequences.

  “I understand, it’s just that this is what makes everything official. A marriage must be consummated to be valid. More pressure is put on us because the future of the land depends on us supporting it. That requires us to be official.”

  I nodded, though I wasn’t comforted in the least by his explanation. I didn’t know how I was supposed to prepare for something like that. Samedi’s hand came down gently on my dress covered thigh and I imagine that he was trying to be reassuring. He was anything but. I tensed, not ready to just jump right into it. His thumb stroked absently, wrinkling the silk of my dress with each pass. Samedi didn’t remove his hand from my leg and instead struck up small talk.

  “So, what do you miss the most about your home?”

  I didn’t even have to think about it. “The food. I would kill to have fresh shrimp and a big sack of spicy mud bugs. What about you?”

  He chuckled. I had always loved food and New Orleans always had the best of just about everything. Even the best of chefs wouldn’t be able to mimic the freshness that the street vendors had.

  His brows knit together as if he was thinking really hard about it. “You know, I don’t know. I don’t remember anything from before my ascension.”

  “Ascension?”

  “Do you remember the Greek mythology? Most of the Gods or at least the demi-Gods, were born to humans before fulfilling their destinies among the pantheon of Olympus. It’s sort of the same. We were born in to this, but my mother was a mortal. When I grew up, Damballah came for me.”

  His story was a sad one and his tone reflected it. Did he even remember his mother? I had no idea how old he was, but I knew it was well in to the hundreds of years.

  Our conversation stayed fairly superficial as we gradually got to know each other a little better.

  My husband found little amusement in Guinee and spent as much time as he could back in the mortal realm.

  “There’s an energy in Louisiana that is so invigorating and refreshing that I find myself drawn to it.”

  I knew exactly what he was talking about. It was the same energy that drew people by the thousands to New Orleans and made whole families pack up and relocate.

  “So it would seem that we have finally found our common ground,” I mused, taking in his deep, rich eyes and full lips.

  He was a beautiful specimen of a man; I couldn’t deny it.

  His eyes dipped to my lips. The heat in the room had risen significantly. “It would seem so.”

  Time ground to a halt as the tension rose. I felt the moisture spread in my panties and I couldn’t explain what had changed between us. It had been a subtle softening of my animosity as I realized tha
t he was just as much of a slave to his duties as I was, though I still wasn’t fully ready to act on my feelings.

  The whole scene felt like Deja-vu. The Baron Samedi seized the opportunity and pounced, catching me off guard. He closed the distance between us and quickly enveloped my mouth in a passionate kiss that I was entirely unprepared for. I sat frozen in shock while his hot, thick lips moved against mine.

  How should I respond? I thought to myself. He was my husband and I felt the obligation to submit to him warring with my lack of affection towards him. I needed to be careful. A wrong move could set him off again and ruin any tentative relationship that we could end up forming.

  His unreturned kiss was becoming demanding and I decided to relent, keep the peace between us even. My rigid lips became pliable under his and I allowed myself to melt into it. The amulet pressed into my skin, becoming much more a part of me than I knew possible.

  His tongue teased and explored me while he shifted us into a somewhat reclined position on the sofa. There was no pause as we moved, nor was there one when he pressed me into the cushion. As odd as it felt, I was enjoying the temporary affection and attention. His hand moved up to massage the tender tips of my nipples that poked through the thin material of my dress. Samedi shifted so he was settled comfortably between my legs. He trailed his lips down my throat to nip at my collar. Needy sounds escaped me as he found the hypersensitive spot just below my ear and exploited it intensely. He was overwhelming me, pulling me under his blanket of need and pleasure.

  When he moved his attention back to my waiting mouth, I could finally break through the haze he had cast over me. How was I here? I hadn’t been particularly fond of the man. Then there was the not so minor issue of him striking me. Only one clear thought came to the forefront of my mind. I had been lonely, and for a brief moment, I wasn’t anymore. I was desired. It wasn’t something I had felt since…Rhys.

  The ache bloomed once again in my chest. Before I had been brought to Samedi’s palace, I had promised Rhys that I would always be his. It was a promise that I’d intended to keep; he was it for me. In that moment, I was betraying him. His handsome face filled my mind as I remembered everything about him.

  “Stop…please? I can’t…I just…” I panted in between feverish kisses. However, he didn’t stop. He ground his thick erection, which was straining against his slacks, into me and kneaded my breast. “Samedi…no.”

  Samedi broke away from me, panting slightly. His eyes blazed intensely as his evident lust and disappointment warred with each other. Without saying a word, he turned and hastily departed, leaving the door ajar as he left. I clutched the armrest of the sofa for support, if I hadn’t, I feared I would’ve collapsed.

  What had just happened? My head spun with shock and confusion, no longer knowing what to think or do. His absence left me bereft of the sensual caress of our intermingling magic. I didn’t get up to run after him and I knew I’d made the right choice. There was only one man that I would chase to the ends of the earth and it wasn’t Samedi.

  Finally climbing to my feet, despite that damn dress’s wholehearted attempts to take me the hell out, I sauntered to the bar and poured myself another large drink. I didn’t care that I was starting to feel the warm fuzzies around my edges from the alcohol that flooded my system. I just wanted to numb everything wakened by the craziness of the previous week. I should’ve known better. Drinking myself into oblivion had never worked for me before. It only served to make me much more emotional than I could stand. This particular episode was no different.

  I was repulsed by my own feelings and by the fact that my body had responded to him so. He had caused me physical pain, beaten me and taken me away from everything I cared for, and yet, I could still be sexually aroused by him.

  It must be the magic. I knew that if magic no longer had a part in either of our lives, I would never feel for him the way I just had. He might have gotten me to lower my guard and look at him in a different light, but having any kind of intimacy or real marriage was out of the question. I knew I couldn’t just forgive him for striking me or forcing me into this mess. Nearly an hour later, I had gotten the idea in my head that we needed to have a serious talk about what the marriage would and would not be. Duties be damned. He had likely gone somewhere to lick his wounded ego since I was sure he probably hadn’t been rejected in a very long time, if ever.

  Just the same, I knew exactly where he was going and we were going to have one hell of a tete-a-tete.

  Chapter Twelve

  Behind Closed Doors

  I had to have been right in my assumption. It was the only place I could think of where I knew I could find him at any given time. He was headed back down to the catacombs beneath the palace to that room. It seemed as though it was his own personal sanctuary. My feet were moving before I had even made the decision and I was speed walking down the corridor again. He had to know that it would never happen again. My heart belonged to Rhys and nothing could ever change that. I had to know why he’d kissed me, surely it was part of his plan to win me over. I could be civil with him, but we could never be like that.

  My feet carried me swiftly down the halls which were absent of life. After the bustle that had been in my room that morning, it was strangely deserted. Where had everyone gone?

  Within minutes I was winding my way through the underground labyrinth in search of the enigmatic room where the Baron was seeking refuge. The sound of my slippers slapping against the stones echoed off the walls. There was no point in trying to be silent. My heart pounded loudly as my pace quickened the closer I got. Whether I liked to admit it or not, he was my husband and these first few days would determine the course of our relationship. I didn’t want him as a lover, but a friend…that was something that I could hope for.

  I flew right and rounded the corner to discover the familiar corridor. I squinted in the darkened hall, trying to see the end clearly. The wall sconces weren’t lit and if I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought that no one had been down there in quite a while.

  There it sat. The door I’d been searching for. I knew instantly that I’d found what I’d been looking for.

  I inched towards it, my heart hammered away in my chest. I was afraid of his reaction and of discovering his hidden secret. If there was any chance of us cohabitating, then boundaries needed to be set. He was already failing at that.

  Muffled groans floated out from behind the closed door. My outstretched hand tightened around the doorknob and paused. Did I really want to know what he was hiding in there? People kept secrets like this for good reasons and I had pledged my life to him once I had signed his contract. Could I live with him if whatever he was hiding was that horrible? Would I be able to turn a blind eye? Honestly, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know anything anymore. My fingers tightened their grip and I took one last deep breath.

  I twisted the knob and gave it a quick shove. There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation before I ambled through after the wooden slab.

  The space was quite dark with only a few low burning candles to light the large room. My eyes searched the darkness for the source of the noise, but it was hard to make anything out distinctly. The room held the lingering scent of incense and something floral, but I couldn’t quite place the unique fragrance. Stepping further in, I noticed the walls were lined with book shelves full to the brim with novels and knick knacks. The cobblestone floor chilled my feet through my slippers, making each step to the shelves almost painful. They held the musty smell I had always loved about old books, yet they held the scent of dried herbs, too. There must have been hundreds of clippings pressed and dried between the pages.

  Something caught my attention in my periphery. A half a dozen volumes were halfway out of the case, not pushed in even with the others. I moved to the disturbance and examined the proffered spines. They didn’t seem to be anything extraordinary. I read the titles, Art of War, The Odyssey and the Iliad, Dante’s Inferno, the Holy Bible, and Alice’s Adventures in Wond
erland. I didn’t know why I was surprise by his eclectic collection of classics, but I was. I pulled out the Art of War and looked over it. Nothing unusual. I glanced up to put it back when I realized why they didn’t fit into the shelf like they should.

  There was something behind it. I scooped up the rest of the books and set them on the floor. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I saw what was wedged behind the novels. I wasn’t sure if I was actually seeing it or if I was imagining the entire thing, sort of like wishful thinking.

  There, hidden in almost plain sight, was the wooden box that had been taken from my room.

  I fucking knew it! I knew he’d been a conniving, backstabbing liar, and miraculously, I finally had the proof.

  Clutching the precious item to my chest, I took a step towards the door to leave. I no longer needed to make peace with the man. If I proved that the siren had been trapped by Samedi, it could void everything between us. She’d have to have something highly incriminating to end up where she was.

  My footsteps echoed off the stone walls and I was almost to the door when I thought I heard something behind me. I paused, ice running through my veins as I was sure I was caught red handed. I turned my head slightly, scanning the room with my peripheral vision, yet seeing nothing that stood out. It was too dark to see anything clearly.

  Then I heard it again. A tiny feminine whimper sounded from the darkened, rear corner. My magic flared to life within my open palm and lit the surrounding area; it had become an ingrained defensive response. The small spark of illumination shone just enough light on the small space to make out the outline of a rack. My ears had not deceived me. That had been the direction of the whimper. I inched closer to the source of the noise. Within the confines of the metal casing was a girl, strung up and hanging from chains that were anchored to the steel frame.

  I pushed a bit more power into my hands and made the poor creature more visible. My eyes scanned over a young woman who looked to be unconscious. Her frame was frail and thin, almost to the point of being malnourished. Every rib was clearly visible under her taught skin. She was held limply erect by the steel frame from which she was shackled to. Cuts and bruises covered her skin. Every inch of her was exposed for any to see as she dangled in the shape of an X. Her legs were spread wide by the anchors on her ankles. It was very clear in that moment that the girl had gone through hell and there was no telling how long she had been there.