by Lynn Viehl
He almost had one hand freed. “There is nothing wrong with you, sweetheart.”
“They think I can’t do anything like the others. That I am defective.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “But they’re wrong.” She made a low, keening sound.
Drew went still as he heard a heavy thump on the outside of the hull. “Gracie, what are you doing?”
“Los delfines saved me when the men threw me away.” As several other thuds sounded, she tucked her head under his chin. “Now they always come when I call them.”
He heard what sounded like high-pitched, chattering squeals, and remembered the tat on her forearm. “Are you talking about dolphins?” He felt her nod. “You can communicate with them?”
“I can bring them to me, and make them do what I wish.” She lifted her head. “They will ram the boat until it sinks. They will drown Segundo and the others. All I have to do is think it.”
“That means I’ll die, too.”
She shook her head. “I won’t let them harm you. They will take us back to shore.”
Drew yanked his hand out of the cords and touched her cheek. “We have to get to the island and free the others. Your ability can help them escape.”
“The others, they hate me because I am different, and because I have been serving the master,” she said slowly. “When they see me, they will kill me.”
He pulled the cords from his other wrist before he put his arms around her. “That walking corpse forced you to work for him. If they don’t understand that, I’ll be happy to explain it to them.”
“We’re almost there.” Gracie let out another, lower sound, and the thuds on the hull stopped. “When I’m on land I can’t call them, Andrew. It only works when I’m in the water, or on it.”
Drew heard the boat’s engines throttling down. “Then if things don’t go well on the island, we’ll go for a swim.”
Light shone down on them as the door to the hold opened, and Drew put his hands behind his back, winding the cord between them.
“Stay behind me if you can,” he muttered.
The machete twins had been sent down to retrieve them, and, after cutting the cords around their ankles, they hauled them up and gestured for them to go above.
Burning torches held by Segundo and the men illuminated the deck, which had been stripped of everything but the pilot’s helm and a giant, ornate chair where Energúmeno sat covered in a cloak of gilded white feathers.
The boat had been docked at a narrow, dark pier. Drew could see a ribbon of glittering sand and the silhouettes of palm trees. A bamboo-covered ridge rose some twenty feet above the shore, mostly covering some kind of dark structure, but there were no signs of light or life.
The vampire rose from his chair and walked to the stern. “My children do not come to greet me. Where are they?”
“We never come at night, master,” Stanton said. “They are probably sleeping.”
“I feel them near. They do not sleep.” Energúmeno climbed out onto the deck and bellowed something in his native language, and then waited as if expecting a response.
Nothing moved or made a sound, but Gracie suddenly pushed Drew down on the deck.
Something hissed over Drew’s head, and he saw a flaming arrow slam into the chest of one guard and knock him over the side. The night air became streaks of flame as more arrows appeared, some sizzling out in the water but others hitting the deck, the side of the boat, and the vampire’s feathered cape.
Drew grabbed Gracie and dragged her behind the chair, looking around it as Energúmeno tore off the flaming cloak and threw it in the water.
The pier began to rock wildly, the posts lifting as if trying to pull themselves out of the water.
“Take off your shoes,” he said as he pulled his off, and shrugged off his jacket.
Another guard fell to the deck, his clothes on fire, his hands clutching the arrow buried in his neck.
“Time for a swim.” Drew pulled Gracie behind the burning man and jumped over the side with her.
The shock of the cool seawater dissipated almost at once, and he put his arm around Gracie as he swam away from the boat. She kept pace with him, only tugging at his arm to steer him toward shore. Once they reached the shallows, he planted his feet and looked back to see Stanton using a fire extinguisher to put out the flaming deck, and the vampire striding across the undulating pier toward the shore, where a group of men carrying spears and clubs rushed out of the trees and surrounded him.
“You dare attack me?” Energúmeno shouted, outraged. “I am your father.”
The biggest of the men stepped forward and said in a calm voice, “We are your captives, not your children.”
“That’s Samuel.” As Drew slogged the rest of the way through the water to the beach, he peered at the giant confronting the vampire. The man sounded like Samuel, but his beard was gone and so was his slow, limping gait. “I think.”
The vampire gestured all around them. “I created this paradise so that you might live long and happy lives here. Is this not what a loving father provides?”
“You imprisoned us here. You’ve treated us like animals,” Samuel countered as he moved closer. “That is not love, but enslavement of the worst kind.”
Energúmeno scanned the faces of the other men, and spoke to them in his strange language. A dark-skinned man came to stand beside Samuel, and leveled the spear in his hands at the vampire’s chest.
“This ends,” Samuel said, “tonight.”
Whatever they had planned to do went awry as another man rushed past them, shouting furiously. Before he could club the vampire, Energúmeno moved his hands through the air, and the man was flung backward onto the sand.
Drew started toward the group, but Gracie yanked him back. “You can’t go near the master when he’s like this.”
“Why not?”
Her lower lip trembled as she looked away. “You will see.”
The group converged on the vampire, only to be knocked away by some invisible force. Whatever the vampire used, it was fast and effective. In less than a minute Samuel was the only man left standing.
“You are stronger than the others.” Energúmeno sounded almost proud. “It will not save you. You are still mortal.”
“You were the same, once,” Samuel said.
“Perhaps I was. But no more.” The vampire made one last gesture, a mere flick of his fingers, and Samuel’s shirt seemed to explode, falling in tatters on the sand around him.
The big man staggered back, but somehow remained standing.
“This is what happens when you displease me,” Energúmeno said in a louder voice. “I will no longer provide for you and receive nothing in exchange. If you do not wish to starve, then you will give me one child on each night of the full moon. If no child is brought to the boat, then no food or comforts will be given to you.” He looked at Samuel. “And you … you are never to come into my sight again. If I ever see you again, I will take you and your woman apart, inch by inch.”
Drew watched Energúmeno’s regal stride as he returned to the boat, where Stanton started the engines and headed out to sea. As Samuel bent to check the first man the vampire had cut down, more figures came hurrying out of the shadows. One, a dark-haired woman carrying a case, dropped on her knees beside Samuel.
“Stay here,” Drew told Gracie.
Drew ran to the injured, stopping a few feet away when two of the men who saw him coming brandished their clubs. “Samuel.”
The big man turned. “Andrew?” His gaze shifted to the men. “No, he’s a friend.”
“I got it.” Drew quickly tore off his shirt and turned his back to show them his ink. As the men lowered their clubs, he joined Samuel. “Sorry. I intended this to be a rescue, but the bloodsucker shanghaied …” His voice died away as he saw the gashes and cuts on Samuel and the other men, who looked as if they’d been run through a meat grinder. He glanced at the unconscious form on the ground, whose torso had lacerations so deep and wide Dr
ew could see some of his internal organs. “Jesus Christ.”
“You can pray later. Start helping the wounded up to the house.”
The dark-haired woman, whom Drew recognized from news photos as Charlotte Marena, reached out to Taske. “Sam, I need you to help me with Ihiyo, right now, or he’s going bleed to death.”
PART FOUR
Burning Dawn
Chapter 18
September 29, 1987
Malibu, California
Emily woke to the sound of a heavy thump, and rubbed her eyes, which were still sticky from crying. Before she called for her nanny, she listened for the voices of the fairies who told her everything, but for once they were silent.
The door to her bedroom opened, but instead of her nanny it was Daddy. The fairies told her how happy he was to see her, and that everything was going to be all right now.
“You’re supposed to be asleep, you little minx,” her daddy teased as he sat down next to her.
Emily hugged him. “Is Mommy still mad?” The fairies had told her terrible things about her mother, that she was going to hurt Daddy and make Emily go away, but Emily didn’t believe them.
“No, baby. She’ll never be mad at you again. I promise.” Her father picked her up. “How would you like to go for a car ride?”
Daddy’s mouth was smiling, but he felt so sad about Mommy that the fairies started crying in Emily’s ears. “Why is Mommy sleeping on the floor downstairs?”
He gave her an odd look before he said, “She’s very tired.”
Daddy carried her out into her nanny’s room, where Emily saw her nanny was also sleeping on the floor. “So is Miss Mary,” he whispered in her ear.
Emily smelled something bad and wrinkled her nose. “Did Nanny mess in her bed?”
Daddy didn’t answer her, and neither did the fairies, who were still crying. He carried her down to the garage, where he put her in the front seat of his car.
Emily, who was never allowed to sit in the front, looked all around her. Daddy’s car was beautiful, and Mommy said she must never touch, but she couldn’t help stroking the polished wood in front of her. As soon as Daddy got in she snatched her hand back.
“Where are we going, Daddy?”
He smiled at her. “Someplace wonderful.”
Daddy drove through the city toward the park where Nanny sometimes took her to play, but he didn’t stop there. He went past it toward the big water.
The fairies were sobbing so much that Emily had to press her hands against her ears to talk. “Can’t we go back to the park, Daddy? I want to go on the slide.”
“You like sliding, don’t you?”
She nodded. “It makes me feel like a bird.” Sometimes she flapped her arms on the way down, hoping she would rise in the air and soar over her nanny’s head, but that never happened.
Daddy drove into a little parking place by the water and stopped the car.
When he came around to open her door and help her out, he said, “I need you to hold my hand now, Emily, and don’t let go.”
She looked at the big red bridge. “Are we going up there?”
He nodded. “We’ll see the whole city.”
Emily skipped alongside her father as he led her to the entrance of the walkway. He had to boost her over the little gate, which was locked, and then he jumped over it, pretending to fall and making her laugh.
“Good thing I don’t have to do that every day,” he joked, dusting off his trousers before he took her hand again. He pointed toward one of the big towers. “Let’s walk up there.”
Emily would have told him how much she liked going out at night and walking on the bridge, but the fairies wouldn’t shut up. They were yelling in her ears so loudly that her head began to ache, and her footsteps dragged.
Daddy noticed. “Don’t be afraid, Emily.”
“I’m not; it’s just …” Mommy had said the fairies weren’t real, and she didn’t want to make her father angry, not when they were having so much fun. She lifted her arms. “Pick me up?”
Her father bent and hoisted her up in his arms, holding her close. “Better?”
She nodded.
Daddy carried her all the way to the tower, and then turned to look back at the city. It was so much prettier at night, with all the lights sparkling like jewels.
“Put your arms around my neck and hold on tight.” When she did, her father climbed up on top of the railing.
Emily glanced down at the dark water far below. There was nothing for her father to hold on to, and if he slipped, they would fall. “Daddy.”
“It’s okay, Emily. We’re going to be together now.” He kissed her forehead. “Together forever.”
The fairies began to scream.
Chapter 19
“All right.”Charlotte stripped off her bloody gloves and dropped them in the trash bin beside the table before she moved back and leaned against the wall. “That’s all I can do for now.”
Samuel had spent the last hour working with her on Ihiyo’s internal injuries. They had discovered that while his healing ability could heal minor wounds, it would not repair damaged arteries or organs. “Will he make it?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a surgeon.” Her head drooped. “Half of what I did I’ve only read about in books. But he’s stable, for now.”
“I will watch Ihiyo, Charlotte,” Tlemi, who had been assisting her, said. “You should go see to the men.”
Samuel caught her arm as she headed for the door. “If you need to monitor him, I can check on the others.”
“No, it’s okay.” She looked at Tlemi, and pointed to the monitor beside the table. “If the numbers on there start changing, yell for me.”
Samuel accompanied Charlotte downstairs to the living room, which they had converted into a makeshift infirmary. Nearly all of the islander men had been wounded by the bizarre creature who had brought Drew to the island, but most of the injuries had proved non-life-threatening.
Charlotte went first to Colotl, who despite dozens of wounds remained conscious, and whose chest and arms were swathed in bandages. After checking his pulse and temperature, she lifted one edge of his chest dressing.
“This looks a lot better.” Knowing he didn’t understand her, she gave him a smile and a nod before meeting Samuel’s gaze. “The edges of his wounds are starting to pink up and close.”
“They heal like we do,” Sam’s red-haired friend said as he approached Charlotte and held out his hand. “I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself during the bloodbath. I’m Drew Riordan.”
“Charlie Marena.” She ignored his hand and gave him a hug. “Sorry I snapped at you on the beach. What that thing did freaked me out.”
“Same here, sister.” He patted her back before drawing away. “If you have everything under control here, I’ve got to go and get my woman. She’s still hiding out down by the beach.”
Samuel frowned. “You brought one of the other Takyn with you?”
“No, but I found one when I came here. Long story.” He glanced at Charlotte. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Samuel noticed Liniz’s woman, Xochi, giving Drew a troubled look as he left. “Charlotte, did you see the woman on the beach?”
“I saw Drew jump off the boat with someone.” She closed her eyes for a moment, and surprise and something like pain flickered across her face. “I can’t read her. Ah.” She rubbed one of her ears.
“What’s wrong?”
“She doesn’t think like a human being.” She shook her head a little, as if to clear it. “All I get from her are these piercing sounds. Kind of like what bats make, I think.”
Xochi appeared beside her. “Agraciana.” She pointed in the direction of the beach, and then covered her ears and shook her head.
Charlotte smiled at her. “Honey, I have no idea what you’re trying to tell me.”
“We’ll figure it out when Drew returns.” Samuel rested a hand on her shoulder, and then reached out to touch Xochi’s
arm. As soon as his palm touched her skin, he felt her voice inside his head, this time speaking flawless English.
—must tell Tlemi that the outcast is here so she can warn them about her—
Charlotte flinched under his hand. “Sam, this woman is dangerous. She’s some kind of—”
“Outcast, I know. I can hear Xochi’s thoughts.” He noticed the island woman’s astonished face. “And I think she can hear ours as well.”
Yes, Samuel. Your mouths are speaking your language, but I hear you in mine. Xochi’s thoughts grew frantic. The woman who came to the island with your friend is not one of us. She serves the master.
Charlotte’s mouth flattened. “What exactly does she do for this bastard?”
“I obeyed him,” a cool voice said.
Samuel turned around to see Drew with a petite dark-haired woman. Although her clothes were damp and her hair disordered, she projected an aura of calm disdain.
The islanders all reacted in sync to her presence, the men struggling to get to their feet while the women formed a protective line in front of them.
“What are you doing?” Charlotte demanded.
A flood of voices answered her inside Samuel’s head, their replies terse and angry.
“You must be Agraciana,” Samuel said.
The woman ignored him and turned to Drew. “We have to leave. If I stay here, they will kill me.”
“Samuel.” Colotl staggered over to him, grabbing his arm as his legs gave way. Charlotte caught him from the other side, and as soon as she touched him his voice echoed inside Samuel’s mind. Agraciana’s voice is her weapon. She can seduce or kill with it. You must silence her before she uses it on us.
“Oh, for God’s sake, shut up.” Charlotte’s blunt order silenced Colotl and the other thought streams. “Now, look. I don’t care what Circe here can do; I didn’t spend the last three hours patching you guys up just so you could turn into pigs.”
“I agree with my lady. There has been enough violence for one night, my friend.” Samuel gestured for the other islanders to stay where they were before he spoke to Agraciana. “Why did you obey the vampire?”