On we went through the houses, Red threading a winding path with speed and confidence. Though I was mostly just trying to keep up, I couldn’t help observing Red himself. He moved like a jungle cat, so strong and sure, making even the most casual movement seem athletic with his muscular grace.
When our path was blocked once more, Red did not even slow in his pace. He caught hold of the low eaves of a house and swung up, kicking both feet into the chest of our latest attacker, sending the man flying while Red landed like a champion gymnast. The man recovered and attacked, forcing Red to dive right, but he was back on his feet in an instant. He caught the man’s wrist as the machete descended and the two men fought for control of the weapon. The thug had all the bulk on his side, and yet Red’s wiry strength seemed to be winning out. I could see the corded muscles standing out along his arms like ropes tightening until, with a twist, he wrenched the man’s arm back and the machete clattered to the ground. The man swung a fist like an anvil at Red’s head but Red was no longer there, jogging back and then diving forwards, slamming the man back against a wall then jumping up in a flying spinning kick that looked as if he was suspended on wires.
We hurried on, out of the narrow streets and back in the direction of the tourist centers, which were heavily patrolled by police. Now, Red finally slowed and turned to face me. For all his exertions, he did not even seem to be out of breath.
“I know we threw a lot of information at you yesterday, and you don’t have to believe us if it all seems a bit too fantastic. But will you at least believe that we are trying to keep you safe?”
“I believe you,” I nodded. “In fact, right now, I’m ready to believe all of it.”
Chapter 6
It seemed hard to believe, but in the absence of any other explanation, and in the very definite presence of people trying to kidnap and/or kill me, I was willing to take a few things on faith. It was a fact that since my encounter with Campbell two nights ago, my world had been turned upside down. It had been worth it, but still. Equally, there was no denying the skills exhibited by Campbell, Red and, I assumed, Drake. Seeing them in action it was easy to believe they were secret agents. I wasn’t given to belief in the supernatural, but right now my only defense against the men who seemed dedicated to catching me were the three agents, and I was willing to keep an open mind as long as they were keeping me alive.
Things now moved quickly.
“We shouldn’t be countering LeSoeur when he moves against us,” said Campbell, as the four of us sat in a quiet coffee shop at the edge of the tourist district. “We need to go on the offensive. Move against him. Take what he wants before he gets the chance.”
I was about to ask what any of that meant in practical terms but Campbell’s words apparently indicated immediate activity.
“Can I get some things from my room?” I asked plaintively as I was chivvied towards the docks.
“No time.”
“Just like a toothbrush or a change of underwear?”
“You’ll find everything you need on Campbell’s yacht.”
As soon as I saw the boat in question, I didn’t doubt it. Campbell’s yacht could probably be more accurately described by someone who knew more about boats. I knew absolutely shit about boats so all I could say was that it was big, shiny and luxurious. In fact, the best description I could give would be to say that it was exactly the sort of yacht I would have expected Campbell to have. He was not a man who settled for half measures.
“Cast off!” called Campbell, the moment we were all aboard.
“Where are we going?”
“There’ll be time for that when we get there.”
“Come on,” Red took my hand with a kind smile. “I’ll show you to your cabin.”
I glanced at my watch as he led me into the boat and down one of those steep yacht staircases that are more like ladders. Two hours ago I’d been walking along the beachfront without a care in the world, now I didn’t know what was happening. The curious thing was, I wasn’t sure which I preferred…
“Here you go. Hope it’ll do.” Red threw open a door and my jaw dropped as I entered. The room wasn’t much smaller than my hotel room and was far more luxurious. A comfortable bed dressed in silks and satins, a large wardrobe in a light wood, thick carpeting underfoot.
“Bathroom’s through here,” said Red, showing me into a room fitted out in gleaming brass and polished marble. “Should be all the toiletries you need here and in the wardrobe…” He strolled back into the main cabin and opened the wardrobe to reveal it was filled with women’s clothes. “I should think there’ll be plenty in there to fit you.”
“Whose is all this?” I gasped.
“Campbell uses the yacht for…” Red searched for the right word, “entertaining.”
“And his guests leave their clothes behind?”
“Some of them have to leave in a hurry – train to catch, husband shows up, something like that. Some of them like him to have a souvenir.” Red opened a drawer filled to bursting with some of the sexiest lingerie I’d ever seen. “Others just didn’t feel the need for clothing when they were with Campbell.”
This sort of revelation could leave a girl feeling a lot less special than she might have done, but in a strange way I kind of liked knowing this about him. He was a ‘rogue’ – an old-fashioned word but a really good one to describe someone like Campbell, and I was glad enough to be a notch on his bedpost – just as he was a notch on mine. There’s nothing wrong with being in the hands of an expert.
I sat down on the bed, wondering if the springs had to be replaced on an annual cycle. “Red, can you give me any clearer idea what all this is about?”
“I need to help the guys take the boat out of port,” Red said, a little hastily. “But, basically, everything we told you about LeSoeur is true. We don’t know why he wants you – still working on the theory it’s because he saw you with Campbell - but as long as he does, we can’t leave you alone. Partly because he might do things to you – we don’t know what – also because if LeSoeur wants to get hold of you then we don’t want him to. So, we need to stay with you, but we also need to stop LeSoeur, and the best way to do that is to be one step ahead of him. We have a fair idea where he’s going next and we’re going to try to get there first.”
“And I have to come along because you can’t leave me alone,” I finished the thought.
“This is correct.” Red gave me a grin. “Can’t stop doing our job just to nursemaid you, we’re trying to save the world.”
I was about to ask more but a shout came from the corridor.
“Red! Get your ass up here.”
“Gotta go.” Red turned to the door but then came back across the room, took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’ll all work out for the best, you’ll see.”
Staring into his bright green eyes, I was prepared to believe every word he said.
As Red left, I thought over my situation. ‘Weird’ more or less summed it up. And yet I couldn’t stop grinning. Maybe that was because I had been looking for something different in my life and, unexpected though all this was, it was certainly different. Or maybe it was because my hand was still tingling from where Red had squeezed it; a tingle that had forged a rapid path from my hand to other more interesting parts of my body.
“Right,” Campbell sat down on the foredeck on one corner of the blanket he had laid out. I sat opposite him with Red and Drake to my right and left respectively. Between us on the blanket was laid out a buffet supper of cold meats, salad, some stuff I didn’t recognize, breads and cheeses, caviar, paté, some more stuff I didn’t recognize and a bottle of champagne which Campbell had just finished pouring into our glasses. Night was falling fast, the moon already visible in the star speckled sky, and a series of warm lights mounted around the boat’s rail had been lit.
I had to pinch myself to realize that I was part of this scene, that I was seated there with three handsome men, beneath a starry sky, with expensive food and d
elicious champagne. I wasn’t sure whose life I had stumbled into, but right now it was pretty good. It helped that right now no one was trying to kill me.
“Help yourself to everything,” said Campbell as he and his friends dug into the excellent food. “It’s all on me.”
“Being a supernatural secret agent pays pretty well, huh?” I asked, grinning.
Campbell’s charismatic eyes flashed up to meet mine and I felt my insides melt. “As a lifestyle it does have its perks.”
Was I one of those perks? I hadn’t hooked up with Campbell because of his money but presumably there were girls who did. Being a supernatural secret agent gave you the good life of good food, good drink, exotic locations and beautiful women – if I said so myself – and all you had to do was risk your life to save the world.
“LeSoeur,” said Drake, bringing the conversation back on subject as he helped himself to a quail’s egg.
“LeSoeur is heading for Lareo Island,” said Campbell, switching from flirtatious to professional with an ease borne of long practice. “It’s a small place not far from here notable for two things; a wildlife preserve housing the last breeding colony of the Lareo Parrot, and a temple housing a statue of a local god with a jewel set in its forehead.”
“Guess which one LeSoeur is interested in,” smiled Red, winking a green eye at me and re-melting my insides, which had just been recovering from Campbell.
“He does strike me as a keen ornithologist,” I suggested.
“The locals still, worship the statue,” said Drake, who remained the sternest of the trio. “So getting the jewel won’t be easy. For him or for us.”
“We’re stealing a jewel from the forehead of a god?” The general trend my life had taken continued to astonish.
“From the forehead of a statue,” clarified Red.
“Is that a distinction the locals will make?”
“We’ll bring it back when we’re done.”
“Why are we stealing it at all?”
“Because LeSoeur wants it,” said Drake.
“Needs it,” added Campbell. “LeSoeur is looking to raise an army of the undead.”
“It’s more common than you’d think,” put in Red.
“To do so he needs to bring three elements to the volcanic island of Tet-Ra, into the summit of which hundreds of sacrificial victims plunged to their deaths, back in the day, to placate an ancient evil.”
“And LeSoeur needs the three elements to resurrect them?” I guessed.
“As zombies,” nodded Drake.
“So ‘resurrect’ may not be entirely the right word,” Red acknowledged.
“The jewel is the first element,” Campbell wrested back control of the conversation. “Second is a sacrificial knife. The third is a maiden.”
“We’re thinking that he might want you to be the maiden,” said Red.
I pulled a face. “Technically, I’m not what you would call a ‘maiden’.” I shot a look at Campbell as if to say ‘as you well know’.
Red shrugged. “Ancient evils don’t get that hung up on technicalities. As long as you’re pretty.”
“Thank you.”
He grinned wickedly at me. “No, thank you. Truth be told, I think the whole virgin sacrifice thing has been overstated. I think most gods are just like the rest of us; they’d have a lot more fun with a girl who knows what she’s doing, but somehow virgins have monopolized the sacrificial market. Don’t know how it happened but it seems to be set in stone now.”
“Red,” said Drake. “Shut up.”
Red rolled his eyes. “You don’t have an enquiring mind, that’s your problem.”
I couldn’t help laughin at Red; he was an easy guy to be around in a crisis, his insistence on not taking anything seriously made the situation easier to take. Plus, he could kick ass.
“Our job is simple,” Campbell rounded off this dinner meeting, “we have to get hold of the three elements before LeSoeur does.”
“Simple?” Drake raised an eyebrow.
“Well, on paper.”
“That’s why you’ve brought me along?” I suggested.
For an instant there was an exchange of glances between the guys, which I guessed was because it was uncomfortable talking about a dinner guest as a potential sacrifice.
“Not really,” admitted Campbell. “The truth is, any maiden will probably do. There may be some ritual benefit to using an enemy maiden and that’s why he’s picked you. Or, if he thinks you work with us, then he may be trying to humiliate our organization by using one of our own as his sacrifice. Then again, if he thinks you and I are… even more than we already have, then he may be trying to hurt me by using you.”
I took all this in. “LeSoeur sounds like a dick.”
“That’s always been the consensus.”
I nodded. “Okay then, let’s go steal the jewel from the forehead of a god.”
Red held up his glass. “Easy, tiger. Drink first.”
We stayed up late into the night, eating and drinking, chatting and laughing. In factual terms, I learned absolutely nothing about my three handsome hosts, and yet I felt I got to know them in other ways. I got to see the softer side of Drake as he let down his walls a little, a shy smile stealing across his face when we all sang ABBA songs together. I got to see Campbell as more than a gorgeous man with his eye on me, as he told stories of past missions – if half of what he said was true he was the bravest man I’d ever met. And I got still more of a sense that Red had a bit of a thing for me, as he plied me with drink and dropped suggestive comments. Frankly, I felt the same way about him; he was handsome and sexy, funny and strong, and he had saved my life.
But tomorrow was a big day and when the champagne was exhausted and the moon was high, we all wended our ways to our separate cabins. I found myself sharing a significant glance with Red as the door to his cabin closed, but then found myself sharing the same sort of look with Campbell five seconds later. Oops. How close were these guys and how badly could I screw it up? Then again, Red knew about me and Campbell and Campbell could not have missed the chemistry between me and Red.
Then there was Drake. I wasn’t blind to how attractive a man he was and…
I locked the door of my room from the inside and went to splash some cold water on my face. I had planned to sleep with a few different guys this vacation, but three friends? That might not be the best idea.
The loud banging on my door pulled me out of sleep with an unpleasant wrench and I shot bolt upright in my bed just in time to see Drake come through the door, shoulder first, busting the lock.
“On-deck. Quick.”
It was not a voice to which you could say ‘Just let me grab a shower’. Thankfully, I had passed out on my bed last night fully clothed – which was to say, wearing a bikini, a sarong and a light, gauzy blouse. I rushed for the door, following Drake down the corridor and up the stairs.
As we burst out onto deck, Campbell and Red were already up there waiting for us.
“Come on!” There was an urgency in Campbell’s voice that seemed entirely alien to the man I had so far gotten to know. It scared me.
The reason was buzzing around in the sky above. A helicopter. As I watched, I saw a man lean out of the cockpit with something on his shoulder that looked like a length of pipe.
“JUMP!” yelled Campbell, and my feet obeyed without the instruction passing through my brain.
The four of us leapt from the deck into the water below. Seconds later, the yacht exploded in a ball of fire and smoke.
Chapter 7
“Everybody okay?” asked Campbell, bobbing in the water not far from me.
“What the fuck was that?!” I nearly exploded.
“Jane says she’s fine,” translated Red.
The helicopter had gone, apparently not noticing that the four of us had escaped.
“Look on the bright side,” said Drake, pointing towards an island that looked about an hour’s swim away. “That’s where we’re going.”<
br />
“Our boat just got blown up and we very nearly got blown up with it,” I snapped. “What’s the damn bright side?”
“Nearly,” said Drake.
“Don’t know what you’re complaining about,” grumbled Campbell, “it was my boat that got blown up.”
“Oh no,” I said sarcastically. “Now how will you seduce shallow young girls?”
Campbell grinned. “Never needed a boat for that. Come on, we’ve got a long swim ahead of us.”
The four of us struck out for the island up ahead, the guys making sure to stay close to me, in case I tired. In fact, swimming is one form of exercise I’ve always enjoyed. When I was a kid I won badges for distance swimming and won a few races, too. Like all these things we take to our hearts as children, since I had grown up, it had been harder to find time to swim, but I still did so from time to time and always found that the skills remained intact.
The island for which we were heading was several miles across and mountainous, but other than that conformed to the general picture of a desert island. It was the sort of place Robinson Crusoe would have been very happy; lush green jungle covering the bulk of it, fringed by sandy beaches at which the blue seas lapped. As we drew nearer, I noticed a few plumes of smoke, rising from further inland.
“That’s the native peoples,” said Campbell, following the line of my gaze. “Lareo Island is one of those few places in the world where the word still means something. They have met the modern world, but for now they’ve decided they want nothing to do with it, and they’re protected by the Caribbean government. I guess it won’t last forever, but for now they get to live their lives as their ancestors did.”
“What about the wildlife reserve?” I asked.
“That’s on the far side of the island,” Campbell continued. “They get on fine with the natives. As I understand it they have an agreement that the naturalists don’t go poking around their sacred sites, and the natives stop using parrot feathers in their head-dresses. It’s all very easy and cordial, provided no one pisses about with their religion. They do take that very seriously.”
Her Shadow Harem: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance Page 5