by Debra Dunbar
I didn’t speak their version of Portuguese, but I knew what he was asking for. Sanctuary. But could I give it? Should I?
I glanced back at Chloe. She nodded. Of course she would. She would take in and heal the world if she could. Shutting them out to protect everyone was my job.
Before I could answer, though, a light flashed from the ship’s deck. Four flashes. Then it went dark. After a few seconds, four flashes lit the deck again. I reached out the flare gun, and Roger took it and replaced it with an old fashioned walkie-talkie. I switched it over to channel four and clicked the button. “Who am I talking to?” I snapped.
“Beautiful Esme. How is the Island Queen?”
How the man could infuriate me in so few words was a mystery. “Terrell, what is de meaning of dis?”
“These fools came through our waters without paying dues.”
“And this concerns my island how, pirate?”
“Anil cannot allow freeloaders through our waters. It sets bad precedent. They are thieves and deserve a thief’s watery grave.”
I clicked off my end and raised an eyebrow at the interloper. “Are yah a thief, Brazilian?”
The one who had came forward the most straightened his back and looked me in the eye. His eyes pinched with strain but whether that was from the situation or trying to speaking in English, I wasn’t sure. “We are no liars. We searched for answers and help. They killed us.”
Terrell’s voice clicked over the walkie again. “Esme, give them to us, woman, and we’ll be on our way. Give us passage to drag them out, and we’ll be out of your waters.”
The small group on my shore grew fidgety as they awaited my answer. I knew for a fact, if I gave them to Terrell, Anil would torture and kill them. His duppy had long ago taken over and reveled in pain. There was no sanity left. And he had thousands upon thousands at his call and in his factories to make his bullets.
I locked eyes with the pleading Brazilian and brought the walkie to my lips and clicked it on. “Yah right, Terrell. I couldn’t agree with yah more.” The kneeling vampire’s eyes widened, and his breath sped up. All of them tightened their muscles obviously ready to fight or run. They spoke more English than they’d let on. I smirked at him. “Precedent is dangerous. Such as de precedent of not violating each other’s shores.”
“Woman, you are serious?”
“As a hurricane. Yah can tell Anil, he has de right to anything in his water or on his shores, but not mine. But if yah set foot on my sand side, we will rain the full force of hell upon yah.”
“He’ll end you and your island.”
“But I’d make sure I personally took yah with me, Terrell. Do yah really want to try me?”
The pause on the other end of the line lasted an eternity. Even though I knew he couldn’t see me, I narrowed my eyes at the ship carrying Terrell. Finally, the click signaled his return. “I’ll give you time to come to your senses, woman. We’ll wait here til they leave then snatch them. You don’t mind closer neighbors, right, Esme?”
I sighed. “Sounds happy, Terrell. Don’t get a permanent tan out der while yah protect my shores.” I clicked off the walkie and tossed it to Roger. I raised my voice to carry across the sand knowing the message would transfer to everyone. “Everyone, take to yah homes. We will do de ceremony tomorrow night.” I couldn’t push it farther back than that. I glanced at the cages. Hopefully everyone would make it until then.
“Prezada Senhora, obrigada.” The whole cadre of my guests stood together at the nod from the head male. The only one who’d spoken so far.
I put up my hand. “Hush, now. Yah have become more of a hag in ten minutes than anyone on this sand for a hundred years.” I turned my back on them and faced Roger, ever at the ready beside me. “Get dem clean, dry, and changed. Assess der mental state.” From the corner of my eye, they all perked up. Interesting. “Excuse me,” I addressed everyone around me, “I need to see to my other guests.”
The vampires bowed formally. “Boa noite, senhora.” Very interesting indeed. What had I gotten myself into?
I stared out my window while removing my ceremonial jewelry and placing it in my lock box. Not that anyone would steal from me here, but old habits die hard. And now I had those who did not understand our ways. The night was wearing thin and the barest of dawn’s ribbon was peeking over the horizon.
But my view was crap. Dotted along the water was ship-after-ship. The jet skis were now attached to larger boats, but there were more of them. Not to mention the two extra attack ships further back in the water. Terrell had called Anil, and things had escalated.
The vampires themselves would be doing the same thing as me and seeking shelter from the sun, but their daytime attack dogs would be just as vicious. Anil only conscripted the worst but most loyal humans he could find. And it would be them against my left over tourists-turned-farmers who’d be giving up their day in the fields to man the weapons at the docks and guard towers around the coast.
With a sigh of frustration, I grabbed the handle beside the window and manually lowered the sun shades. “We are besieged for strangers we know nothin’ about,” I muttered.
“It was the right thing to do,” Chloe answered from behind the dressing curtain.
I shook out my hair and ran my hands down my linen suit to smooth out the non-existent wrinkles, then moved to close the rest of my windows. It would be stifling but safety first. “Right or wrong isn’t a thang, it’s a hag and disrupted de ceremony we needed.”
“The crazy duppy will hold to tomorrow, woman.” She slipped from behind the curtain in her blue cotton dress tied tight just under her breasts. It fell in graceful lines to her mid-thigh. She wrapped a matching blue scarf around her head, then began to light the lamps around the room. “It would’ve been much more of a hag to allow those pirates to profane our soil.”
A voice cleared behind my door, followed by a polite soft wrapping. “Senhora, par favor?”
Our gazes met. I blew some hair from my face, and she smirked.
“Speak of de devil,” I whispered and she playfully smacked my arm. I straightened my shoulders and sat in my high backed rattan chair by the now sealed doorway to my terrace. Chloe stood to my right. “Enter,” I called.
As expected, the tall Brazilian, the only one who’d spoken before, stepped into the room. He wore a natural linen shirt, opened at the top of his chest tucked into a pair of slacks that didn’t quite fit him. Even with the borrowed clothes, he managed to give a sense of grace and command at the same time.
He moved to the center of the room and surveyed the space. He took in the items I had strewn around in my temper tantrum when I’d stepped in for the day. I waited silently and let him play this out how he wanted to. Finally, he focused on me, smiled and bowed his head slightly. “Prezada Senhora, obrigada.” I raised an eyebrow and waited.
The silence rolled by for longer than it should have, but I knew better. After several minutes he narrowed his eyes then said, “Thank you for your assistance.”
My smile slid across my face and I nodded. “I knew if I waited long enough yah tongue would find its way to English. Yah all understood me just fine.”
“Understanding and speaking words correctly are two different things,” he answered with a bow of his head and splaying his hands to the sides.
“True dat,” I acknowledged. “But it’s more dan time for yah to be telling me why yah are playing in such dangerous waters.”
He stared through my shutters as if he could see the ships beyond. “We interrupted tonight.”
“Yeah, yah did, but dat wasn’t what I was asking.”
“You have cage for our kind. I saw it.” His voice was softer, sadder.
“Just til their duppy are in control again.”
His head angled to me, and his brow drew together. “Duppy? I am sorry. I know not this word, duppy.”
“It’s what we call de spirit in our kind dat makes evil and wrong. Dat kept death from bringing us on.”
“Dat be what de English and others be calling dem, but we were here before dey set foot on our sand and long before dey dropped bombs everywhere else.”
He turned and addressed me so earnestly it took me back a bit. “And the ones in cage?”
There was raw emotion in his voice. I fought the urge to lean into it and answered, “De duppy has taken over and destroys without control. Dey have lost deir grasp to dis world.”
“You were to kill them tonight?”
The question shocked me so I barked out a laugh that made him take a step back. “Heavens no. We were to help dem before yah came barging in with de floating flotilla on yah tail.”
“Were you afraid we kept you just to put you in the cage?” Chloe asked, astonished.
He rushed forward fast enough to make me draw my blade from my boot, but he stopped short before me and hit his knees. With large, hopeful eyes he looked up at me and said, “This is why we come. Why we trying to get to America. The secrets of scions. We need this?”
“Need?” I prompted, leaving the scion confusion until I had all the information.
He bowed his head. “I came tonight to beg you to help us get past the ships to get to America. I am to find the secret of how to make scions and bring to my people.” His voice became so small, even with my hearing I had to strain to hear. “Our old ones are dying by their hand or going louco and having to be ended. Many times after they have killed many for no reason. And our young just turning fifty, the same. Too much. They need scions. America and Europe know how to make them survive, but will not help. But you,” he looked up again, “you saved us tonight. You can save us all.”
“Dat’s what yah were doing on de pirate’s islands too?” His tale was enormous if true.
“We planned to get more supply for our amigos a dia, day people, but Lucas thought he found scion, person working for vampire only. But was just a live-in piranha sangüíneo, um, sorry, blood whore. She tell her master, and we ran.”
“Yeah, dey don’t take well to uninvited friends on der islands without paying them everything first.”
“And you?”
“Still deciding,” I answered truthfully. “But I haven’t killed you yet, so dat’s a sign in yah favor.” I made my tone light, but his face drew tight and grim. Then my memory hit me of the other two ships we’d see blown up. “Yah lost friends tonight, didn’t yah?”
He nodded. “We are lost and failed. Rojajah is lost. My Gabrielle is lost.”
The last sounded deeply personal. This was a man not only doing this for duty. He was losing someone dear. But Rojajah. The named tickled my memory to debates on the TV before the world grew silent and apart after the bombs. I’d never played in the bigger courts, happy to have my island safe and secure. This was bigger than I wanted to dip my toe in. I had no interest in gathering the attention of either the Americas: North or South. They were all a hag. So I switched to the easier conversations. “Well, at de moment, I have no plan to kill any of yah, um, what is yah name?”
He stood up and squared his shoulders to me. “My apologies, Senhora.” He bowed. “I am Corsair Jimaverez, Hand to the North to Joao Pedro Rojajah, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil e América do Sul.”
“Dat is quite de mouthful, Corsair. I’m Esme Hunte, Mistress of Barbados.” I motioned to Chloe, “Dis is Chloe Boyce, High Obeah, what yah would call priestess, of Barbados. We’ll help in de way we can, but we don’t know of de mainland thing called scion.”
“Thank you, Mistress,” he said laced with gravity. “I am sorry for troubles we bring to your land.”
I acknowledged his apology with a smile and a nod. “De sun is nearly up. Chloe will see yah back to de others safely. We’ll talk again when de high sun has dipped back down low. We will show yah what we do, though I doubt yah can do de same.”
The night was not quite as beautiful as the previous one had been. That fact weighed on me as I stood on the sand once again gazing out at my people. The livestock and other offerings were all there held sweetly by their handlers to make their last moments easier. The crop offerings were all stacked neatly, replacing the ones that had been kicked around in the confusion of last night. The moon still shone high in the heavens, but now clouds blocked many of the stars that had twinkled for last night’s ceremony. Yes, it was a fair night, but everything and everyone was just a step off. I wished in my heart that it wouldn’t change the outcome. We’d never before held off a ritual. Not since I’d taken full control of the island. But, if my undead life had taught me anything, it was to be firm but flexible. Thus, I stood in the sand with a content smile painted across my lips to assure my people that no matter what, everything would be alright.
I slid my eyes to the southern edge of the clearing and caught site of our visitors whispering furiously to one another. All except Corsair. His eyes were locked on me. A vague smirk painted his lips that reached up to his eyes. I nodded at him and gave him a larger smile. Poor boy. He was pinning his hopes on our ceremony fixing his problems, but they were not Obeah. They did not have the connection to the spirits and their world that we did. Our priests and priestesses were our salvation because of their joining to this land’s spirit. There was nothing we could do for his foreign vampires unless they all moved here. Which no matter how I hurt for their problems, I could never allow.
I raised my hands, and the musicians began their songs in earnest. The build was slower, but, as always, it eventually swept us in the feeling, connecting us with the rhythm of the waves and the heartbeat of the land itself. Knowing we needed this ceremony more than most to go strong, I sang to the beat loudly, losing myself in the feeling of the group growing as one. When Chloe and the other holy ones joined us, the descant became almost too much energy to bear, but still they sang and danced on. I forgot the visiting interlopers and the unwanted pirates watching from their boats and only longed for the wholeness this night would bring and the feel of Chloe. My song caught in my breath the moment she reached me and her fingers grazed my skin. Flashes of energy passed between us, flowing from her and filling me. My spine bowed as a moan slipped from my lips. This. I needed this. I only got all of her once every quarter, and it was never enough. My body came alive as we moved and intertwined in our dance together. All thoughts of the island’s day-to-day melted away into one thought: Chloe. Desire both spiritual and carnal rushed out, and my true face showed through and my fangs sprang to life, not wanting to wait through more of the ceremony.
Seeing my hunger, Chloe nodded to the drummers to the side of the inner circle, and the beat hesitated and then changed into something more somber. Chloe’s voice became harmonic as she spoke, like she was here and somewhere else at the same time. “Tonight we Obeah come together to bring the energy of life to our island, our protectors and ourselves. Tonight light and dark join to continue our cycle of life unbroken by the ploys of the world.” She reached across and poured her concoction of herbs and liquids into the fire. They went off like a shot, crackling and exploding the intoxicating scents of the ceremony into the air. And making me lightheaded with anticipation. Every part of me heaved with eagerness and hope.
She gave me a private smirk and wink, then continued, “Brothers and sister of the living and spirit world, tonight we combine death,” she motioned to the rest of the inner ring with the sacrificial goats and other animals, “to continue the cycle of life. We bring the connection between body, blood, and life in all ways that we can so that the spirit may grow.”
I bit my lip knowing what was coming next and willing it to come faster. She began her undulating dance around me as the drums matched her rhythm instead of the other way around. Others did the same, including the largest group who would be moving around the cages and those who needed it most inside them. Soon it would be safe enough to open those steel doors again.
Grazing her fingertips along my body,
Chloe continued the ceremony. “We encircle all that would threaten us to change them into the force of protection that keeps us safe. Friends. Family. Love.” She made her way all the way around until she faced me again. Her eyes became my whole world. She reached down, and I swallowed hard as her lips found mine.
I melted into the feel of her and let it wipe everything else away. Once every quarter she was fully in control, and I found peace in slipping off the mantel of authority and giving it over to her and everything she was. She was a place of safety. Her tongue sought entry, and I opened to her as her fingers reached around and ran through my hair before grabbing my neck and holding me tight.
She explored me, inside and out, as tendrils of energy flowed through our kiss and found purchase somewhere deep in my core. Her fingers played over my breasts, making them hard and me wet with desire. Sating and driving me mad with hunger for more at the same time. Sunbursts exploded behind my closed eyes as the exchange of energy between us found purchase. I ached for her and moaned into her kiss, until she released her hold. She turned so the back of her body curved along my front. Instinct driven by desire drove my hands to wrap around her, possessively, daring anyone to try to take her from me. Words were impossible for me, but she continued, calm and relaxed to the outside world, but I, who knew every piece of her so well, could hear the breathy tells of her own desire. It only served to drive me closer to the edge of losing all control.
“We give of ourselves just as our sacrifices give to the island to return the energy we have taken to grow strong so that we may be protected and filled once again.”
Without hesitation, I drove my fangs into her neck. A moan of want and ecstasy escaped her lips. I held her tight to me as her legs failed. I followed her to the sand. Our bodies wrapped and reached out for each other. My tongue flooded with her full flavor of salt, sugar and something just a bit spicy that screamed out Chloe. Her back arched into me. I needed more. My hand followed the curve of her hip bone and dragged her skirts up. As I drew more of her into me, I slipped my fingers inside of her, working her to the beat of my pull and her heart. Her wet folds opened to me. The scent of her, in the air, on me, drove my need higher. I moved inside her and bit harder, until her sweet skin glistened with sweat in the cool night air and she cried out her pleasure, only adding to the music. Other cries joined her, but I pushed the thought of them away. I had her here, now. And I needed more.