Sins of the Flesh (Half-Breed Series Book 2)

by Debra Dunbar

  Irix shot me an amused smile. “Besides an elf. I’ve been summoned a few times, and Mr. Hayworth’s home doesn’t seem to be typical of a magic-user. I’m wondering if perhaps there wasn’t a mistake in the ritual, or if the man has a poor grasp on local mythology.”

  I halted mid-report and looked up. “Screw up or not, he got a volcano goddess. The big question in my mind is what did he offer her? It had to have been more than a handful of pineapples or she would have been gone by now. He must have promised her something and didn’t deliver.”

  “Or performed a vaguely worded ritual that allows her to stay.” Irix picked up a handful of books and began to leaf through them. “If these old gods are anything like demons, they’ll take advantage of any loophole.”

  That too. I frowned at all the fungicide catalogues, feeling a pang of sympathy for Mr. Hayworth and his failing pineapple farm. According to Kristin, it was difficult to get these rituals to work. How had an obvious amateur managed to awaken a vengeful volcano goddess? The thought scared me. If Hayworth could do such a thing, how many other dangerous beings could be summoned or awakened by people who had no idea what they were doing? Suddenly the price on my head seemed small potatoes in comparison.

  “There’s nothing here.” Irix tossed the books onto the desk. “All we’ve got is that something happened a week ago that cured the blight on this farm and caused Pele to show up. Maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe a competitor did this to ruin him and he’s just defending himself with the pineapple offerings.”

  Could be. I hadn’t found anything indicating this guy was into black magic – or any kind of magic. “Or he hired someone to bless the farm, or pray the fungus away or something, and wound up with Pele along with a disease-free crop.”

  “Then why isn’t the priest throwing pineapples in the fire? It’s not like this guy has a problem anymore. Pele is burning down farmers’ markets and hibachi restaurants, not pineapple farms.”

  She had seemed to focus on man-made structures. The beach bonfire was the only one that affected a naturalized area, and if my suspicions were correct, that was the ritual fire.

  I shrugged. “Maybe the priest doesn’t know what he’s done? Hayworth must have some sense of humanity about other people’s property or safety, otherwise why would he have shown up at the Hibachi place? He must have figured out what happened and is trying to help.”

  Either Hayworth was a good guy who’d made a terrible mistake, or a sleazy farmer taking magical short cuts and putting the island at risk. Either way, his appearance at the fire tonight led me to believe there was something worth redeeming in the guy. Although we were unlikely to find out with him comatose on the porch in sex-induced slumber.

  Irix snorted. “We need him to stay here, and guys that screw up like this tend to run for it. Hayworth may be the only one who can tell us how to send Pele back to rest, and he’s certainly the only human we’ve met so far who knows what’s going on.”

  I pursed my lips. “So we take his id and passport just in case?” That would probably stall him for a day or so, depending on how quickly the DMV worked on Maui. Of course, we’d have to find it in this mess of a house.

  “I was thinking more of duct tape and rope. We could stick him in one of the outbuildings, and I’ll question him tomorrow morning, once he’s slept off his insane masturbatory activity.” Irix gave me a stern look.

  “Um, no. I’m okay with you questioning him, but I’m not okay with the rope and duct tape. I’ve got to live among the humans, and I don’t want to spend the next ten years in prison.”

  Irix rolled his eyes, which looked silly given his current attire. “And stealing his identification isn’t a crime? Even without a driver’s license, he could hide on the island and we’d waste precious time trying to find him. Duct tape and rope. That way he stays put, right where we can find him when we need to.”

  I scowled, putting on my best ‘immovable-object’ face. “Irix, I’m serious. We’re not doing something that amounts to kidnapping in the eyes of the law.”

  “Fine.” Irix turned around and grumbled about my stubbornness and how he really didn’t care if the whole island burned down anyway. Which was true. He was only bothering to do any of this because I wanted him to. Yes, he found some of this interesting, but I could tell he’d rather be drinking daiquiris and fooling around poolside.

  “I love you.” That got another grumble. “And I really appreciate you helping me out with this. When we get back to the hotel, I’ll let you tie me up instead. Deal?”

  He turned, an unholy light in his eyes and a little smile hovering at the edge of his mouth. “And duct tape?”

  “No way.” That stuff hurt like crazy when it was removed. “Let’s move this guy to the bedroom so I don’t feel quite so guilty, and we’ll come back in the morning for you to interrogate him.”

  “Okay.” Irix grinned, and I shivered at the ruthless note in his voice. The incubus was downright scary, even when he was wearing a floral-patterned muumuu. “But if this guy doesn’t cooperate, I’m going to show him that a volcano goddess isn’t the only bad entity on this island.”

  We drove back to the resort in silence where I took a much-needed shower while Irix crashed on our bed. He was a gorgeous tangle of sheets and tanned skin, and I eyed him appreciatively as I tiptoed past to dry my hair by the window. Moonlight sparkled on the tips of the waves, and tiki torches flickered orange against the dark, lighting a section by the pool where a party was winding down.

  It was so peaceful. And peace was all I wanted. Irix was right. I needed to humble myself to Cleo, to take a step toward reconciliation. I glanced at his sleeping form then threw on a cotton dress and some flip-flops, snatching something off my dresser on the way out.

  I skirted the pool and the few party stragglers, making my way to the area where they’d held the luau. Off to the side of the raised stage was a firepit, its stones cold and dark. Picking up a palm frond from under a tree, I laid it on the firepit and gently placed my gift on top.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t want to fight with you. Please forgive me.”

  I stood there, hoping the goddess would appear. When I began to shiver from the cool night air against my still-damp body and hair, I turned to leave.

  The next morning, the little gold orchid barrette was gone. The firepit was scorched black, palm-frond ash in the center. Glowing coals spelled one word across the rock. “No”.

  Chapter 21

  It’s Pele,” I told Kristin.

  Kai waited patiently, surfboards in hand as I took the call. She’d wanted to cancel our lesson after hearing the details of last night’s confrontation with the goddess and the resulting fire. Worse, the hibachi place wasn’t the only victim of Pele’s wrath. Fires had sprung up all over the island, tearing through Kahului as well as some of the smaller towns. Her anger had fizzled right before dawn, ending all the fires and leaving everyone on edge about where the next one would occur. The arson was now being blamed on a team of individuals – motive still unknown.

  After hearing the news and seeing the goddess’s message, I’d wanted to cancel too. But I needed this. I needed to wrestle with the sea and a fiberglass board as opposed to a hot-tempered deity. And I needed Kai – her easy laughter giving me hope it would all somehow turn out okay. She meant Hawaii to me, not Pele.

  “I’ll work on it,” Kristin vowed. “If there’s some way to get Pele to go away, I’ll find it. In the meantime, did you get the protection ritual I e-mailed?”

  “Yeah. I got it.” I had my doubts about its effectiveness. Kristin knew her stuff, but trying to power a ritual with enough juice to protect the entire island from fire wouldn’t be simple. Add in the fact that as a non-human I may not even be able to power it at all, and the whole thing seemed like a waste of time.

  “The protection is triggered by energy output, so hopefully people will still be able to flick their Bics and light their gas stoves.”


  “I got the package you overnighted too.” Good old Fed X — New Orleans to Maui in less than twenty-four hours. It held little vials of liquid, small enough for me to slide several into my shorts’ pocket.

  “Throw them at the fire servant. Just in case the protection ritual doesn’t work.”

  Because it wouldn’t. Work, that is. Ugh, I needed to have a more positive attitude. It would work, and so would the protection ritual. And now that Pele seemed to have finished with her temper tantrum, she’d come back to discuss this all in a reasonable fashion and agree to leave willingly. Yeah.

  “The offering is pineapples,” I told Kristin. “Last night, some farmer threw pineapples into the fire servant, and it went away. I couldn’t find anything at his house, but we’re going to question him later.”

  “Pineapples.” Kristin’s voice was thoughtful. “If it appeases the servants, it may appease the goddess.”

  Doubtful, but I’d give it a shot. Although whether I was supposed to serve them to her on a platter or throw them at her head, I wasn’t sure. After last night’s activities, I was voting for throwing them.

  “One thing that’s bothering me. This mage seems like an amateur at best,” I told her. “There’s nothing at his place that even hints magic-user. Maybe he partnered with someone else, or just got lucky?”

  “Could be a partner. I doubt an amateur could do this solo. It’s a very difficult and precise ritual. Although weirder things have happened.”

  If there was anything weirder out there, no doubt I’d encounter it later. That seemed to be the way my life was working out.

  “Given what we saw in the guy’s paperwork, I’m assuming if he hired someone, it would have been to heal his orchard of blight.”

  “Huh?” I could practically hear Kristin scratching her thick strawberry-blond curls. “A volcano goddess with fire servants? You summon one of them for passion or renewal – like when you want to start anew after a scorched earth sort-of thing. Not for healing plants.”

  “Well something worked. The guy went from an orchard full of infested trees and fruit to a healthy harvest in a week.”

  “Hmmm.” Kristin fell silent, and I could hear the faint noise of a dog barking in the background. “Do you know what ritual he used? Maybe it was some kind of combo spell.”

  “Nope. I’ll give you a call after we talk to the pineapple farmer.”

  “Leave a message. I’m in meetings most of the day, but I’ll check my cell. I’ll do some research, but if I knew what spell he used, I’d have a better idea how to undo it.”

  “Thanks, Kristin. You’re the best.”

  “Talk to you later, Amber. Don’t forget to have some fun with Irix. You are in Maui, after all.”

  “Will do.” I was trying, but the little moments of fun were falling victim to the fire too.

  Kai raised her eyebrows at me as I tossed my phone on a towel and reached for my board. “Pele, huh? Why couldn’t it be the goddess of rainbows and unicorns, or the god of gentle breezes and warm summer days?”

  We walked slowly to the water. “Are there gods like that? Every one I’ve read about seems to be thunder, lightning, war, fire, and general devastating mayhem. Even the kinder, gentler fertility gods have a nasty streak.”

  “Yeah, but if I had to face a destructive-nature kind of god, I’d want Thor, not Pele.”

  I snorted. “Who wouldn’t? That guy is hotter than a ghost pepper with tabasco on it. I’ll take the thunder and lightning as long as I get to bang him first.”

  “And that hammer... how phallic is that?”

  The warm water gently tossed my board as we paddled out. “But only the worthy get to hold it. Not that I’ll ever know if I’m worthy, since I’m stuck with bitchy, aquaphobic, volcano woman instead.”

  “Pele.” Kai shook her head. “So, let me get this straight — a farmer who doesn’t seem like a mage did a ritual to call on Pele to cure his anthrax-nose?”

  I giggled. Couldn’t help it. This whole thing had me on edge, but Kai had a way of making me laugh at even the darkest problems. “Anthracnose. Colletotrichum ananas fungus.”

  “That’s what I said. Anthrax-nose. Hmm, I don’t know of any Pele legend where she cures blight or provides a good harvest. Pele tends to be a bit of a hoarder, and she’s got a thing when it comes to attractive men – regardless of their mortality. She’s the goddess who erupts Kilauea and rains hot lava on your house because you disrespected her. She’s the goddess who turns men who spurn her into trees. Not the type to dance in fields of flowers and make pineapples grow, if you know what I mean.”

  I did. And the whole idea of a volcano showering me with molten rock because Cleo had gotten her hair wet from a fire sprinkler gave me the shivers.

  “So if not Pele, then who? The farmer had blight, and then he didn’t. Maybe there is another god or goddess involved?”

  “There really isn’t a native Hawaiian deity that handles that sort of thing. Tiki handles good luck, hence the Tiki figures every tourist goes home with. Possibly Lono. Some legends have him as an agricultural god, but primarily he’s the god of peace. Then there’s Haumea. She’s a fertility goddess, but of childbirth. She’s the mother of Pele and her siblings – kind of a general mother figure.”

  “Pele has siblings?”

  “Five or more, depending on which legends you follow.”

  “A sister? Maybe an older sister?”

  “Uh yeah. Namaka.

  “Namaka — as in the goddess of the sea Namaka. No, that can’t be right.”

  Kai wrinkled her brow and straddled her surfboard. “Pele has two sisters who are well known. Namaka is the older one. Pele tried to take her husband and Namaka exiled her and chased her across the ocean. The other one is a little sister – Hi’iaka. Pele carried her across the ocean in an egg and raised her on the islands.”

  I gave up paddling further and let the waves rock me. “This is going to sound really weird, but Cleo kept calling me sister. Last night she even referred to me as her older sister. You don’t think she could possibly be confusing me with Namaka, do you?”

  Kai burst out laughing. “Girl, you can barely stay on your surfboard. Namaka, you are not.”

  “I know that. You know that. But I’m thinking our volcano goddess doesn’t. I’ve been tossing water at her since day one. She’s called me sister numerous times, and I don’t think she means it in a street-slang kind of way.”

  My friend shook her head. “You’re blond and fair skinned. The entire pantheon looks like the island natives. Why would she think you’re Namaka?”

  “Because she’s been dozing for a few-hundred years. Things have changed, but she’s learning fast. The legends of Pele tell of her appearing as an old lady, a beautiful young woman, even a dog, so she can change her appearance. Who’s to say her sister hasn’t decided to walk around as a blond for a while?”

  “Maybe. You know, if Pele thinks you’re Namaka, that puts you in a good position to negotiate.” Kai shot me a sly smile. “She’s one of the only siblings Pele is afraid of. Namaka exiled her, chased her across the ocean, forcing Pele to create the islands. She lived all alone here in exile until the humans came. She’s probably wondering if you’re going to run her off the islands, chase her off to some place where she’s all alone again.”

  Alone. Pele had her faults, but perhaps there was something behind her abrasive attitude. Maybe she was afraid. And lonely. And maybe I was an optimistic fool.

  “Let’s surf.” I looked out at the surfers in the lineup. “We can get in a few waves and still make it back for my interrogation of a pineapple farmer.”

  ***

  I waited for Irix in our room, reading as much as I could Google on Hawaiian legends. There really wasn’t a fertility god or goddess like in Greco-Roman pantheons. Could we be facing two gods instead of one? We desperately needed to find out what Dennis Hayworth had done – or if someone else had done it for him.

  By the time my incubus returned, I’d
taken to pacing. Had Hayworth botched a Wiccan ritual? Had he summoned the fire-being instead of a fertility demon? Had he bought a cursed amulet over the internet?

  Irix crossed the room and gathered me into his arms, kissing the top of my head. “No more fires this morning. I found out the cane plantation cancelled their scheduled burn for today, citing dangerous environmental conditions.”

  That helped, but when any spark could fuel the appearance of a fire servant, we still weren’t anywhere near being safe. The protection ritual of Kristin’s would need to wait until midnight tonight. Until then, we were on alert, ready to dash off to any fire so I could throw vials of spelled water at it, and some of the produce Irix had detoured to pick up from the store on his way back.

  “Did you get the pineapples?” We’d wanted additional ammunition in case Pele started up again. We only had so many vials of magical water. If pineapples could help, then pineapples it was.

  “In the trunk. I even paid extra to get ones grown on the island, just in case Pele and her servants are picky about the origin of their offerings.”

  Ugh. There weren’t a lot of pineapple farms left on the islands. Like the sugarcane, pineapples were a tight-margin business. Hayworth was on the edge of bankruptcy after a few bad years. He’d stuck it out, but most corporate farms had packed it up and sold to developers long ago.

  “We need to get as much information from Hayworth as possible. I’ve picked Kai’s brains and been on the internet for the past hour without getting any closer to solving this thing.”

  It was so frustrating. And every passing moment brought us closer to the next fire, and Cleo’s inevitable revenge attempt.

  Irix stroked my hair, and I leaned into him, regretting that our vacation had gone this way. For six months I’d yearned for him, and here we were, knee-deep in another supernatural crisis.

  “The world always has a way of correcting itself,” he whispered. “I’ll do everything I can to help you make this right, but if it grows beyond our abilities, know the pendulum always swings to center.”