Eden's Charms

by Jaclyn Tracey

  Savanah broke free from her father and did a running dive into the murky water before the last pieces of debris hit the ground.

  “Ethan!” She swam a good one hundred meters before arms grabbed her. Fighting for both her life and Ethan’s, she turned around in the water fists plowing into an officer’s nose. “Don’t touch me,” she screamed. She filled her lungs and disappeared beneath the surface, headed for the sinking wreckage.

  A second pair of arms caught her but didn’t relinquish their grasp as she was reeled up. Savanah turned and even though she saw Julian, she fought.

  “Get off me, Uncle. Let me go. Help me.” A wave of gasoline and oil slapped her in the face and left her gasping. The combination of fear, exhaustion and adrenaline quickly took its toll. She went under again and had trouble wading. “Please, go get him back?” she begged as tears spilled down her cheeks and mixed into the lake, vanishing, just as Ethan had.

  “He’s gone, Peanut.” Julian tread water beside her and held her afloat until the police boat swung up to them. “I’m so sorry.”

  Back on land, shivering and numb, Savanah watched the boat Ethan was in vanish with the same disappearing act the Titanic did. Her knees gave out, and she dropped sobbing, mad at the world. André followed. Savanah looked at her father and asked “Why Papa? Why did Ethan have to die? I don’t understand? You told me the good guy is the last man standing. Papa, he was good. I love him. He can’t be gone.” Savanah hiccupped and passed out.

  A man in a dark black suit with PEON embroidered on his jacket’s lapel emerged from the restaurant carrying a woman draped over his shoulder. “I found one more,” he yelled. “Get me a paramedic. She’s still alive. She’s in rough shape. Been raped and beaten. This place has a dungeon down stairs. Some guy was secured to the table about to get sliced in half. I let him go.”

  “Fuck!” André called out, “I need another stretcher. My daughter’s passed out. Her fiancé was on that boat. And the guy you unleashed was behind all of this chaos. Good job!”

  The ride to the hospital sobered him. André promised Jovan her happily ever after, but instead he was bringing his daughter in as a patient because Savanah went into shock.

  Approaching Jovan’s room, André heard Jovan’s laughter. Sticking his head in the door, his wife had a cup of tea in front of her. Molly slept in the bed next to her and Serina sat in the chair with her feet up on her bed, Elyza in her arms.

  “How’re my babies?” André asked. He sat down beside his wife and leaned in for a soft kiss.

  Serina answered, “Fine. Hopefully you won’t be seeing them for a few months. They got tied up in each other’s cords and started fighting. One thing led to another and here we are. The operation of the conjoined twins never happened. The people that have them freaked last night when someone tried to break into their hotel room. They fled with no further word of their whereabouts.”

  “Serina, how did you and Luce know where to come and what was happening? We lost contact with everyone.” André glanced between his wife and Serina, suspicion plastered all over his rugged face.

  Serina swallowed the guilt gurgling its way up her esophagus. Did she tell André her mother was once again inside his wife and children? At least they were in a hospital if someone got hurt! That slice of optimism was her saving grace.

  “Cell phones. Everyone has them these days.”

  Jovan pulled hers out from between her thighs with a little grin.

  “Where are Lucian and Savanah?” Serina asked.

  Hesitation in any situation is sure death. Obviously, André took a split second too long to answer.

  “Out with it.” Jovan ordered through clenched teeth.

  Before he was done explaining, André was wheeling Jovan down the hall to her daughter’s room.

  “Oh, André, how could this happen? I scryed and saw them together. How? Why?”

  “I don’t know, Cherié, but he gave his life for her.”

  “Where’s Lucian?” Serina asked trying to keep pace with Jovan.

  “He had to disappear for a bit. He’s in no danger.”

  “Bebé, how do we help our daughter get over this?”

  “Time and our love, my Cherié.”

  ****

  October 10th

  “Savanah! André! Serina! Julian! Jonah! Lucian!”

  Sticking his head out his bedroom door at two in the morning Lucian asked, “Jovan, how come I’m always last on your list when you call people?”

  “No time for funnies, imbecile. I’ve sprung a leak. Please get your dead-beat of a brother up and moving.”

  Jovan waddled past Lucian in a way he was positive pregnant woman couldn’t move—unnaturally fast.

  “Savanah?” Jovan stuck her head in her daughter’s room. “You awake?”

  Rubbing her eyes and looking at her clock, she answered, “I am now. What is it?”

  “You ready to meet your new brothers or sisters?”

  Half asleep Savanah threw on a pair of flip flops and a pair of Ethan’s baggy sweatpants. She buried her hair under her Yankees cap and ran down the stairs to her parents’ room.

  “Whose driving?” Savanah asked.

  “I am.” Jonah answered in passing as he went to bring the car around.

  Jovan skidded to a halt in front of Jonah. “Absolutely not. I can see it now. We’d get pulled over for speeding, and I’d deliver these two in the backseat.”

  “’Tis only fitting dear, sweet sister. Isn’t that where they were conceived?”

  She snatched the keys from his hand and gave them to Savanah.

  “Don’t take it personally, Jonah.” André yawned. “How far are your contractions, my Cherié?”

  “If they’re much closer there will be no need for me to get into the car and get to the hospital. Answer your question?” Jovan shoved her little overnight bag in her husband’s arms.

  “I’ll get the car warmed up, Mum. Where’s Duncan and Molly?”

  Julian mumbled, “Europe ring any bells? They left two weeks ago.”

  ****

  In the car waiting for her mother and everyone else, Savanah surfed the radio for an upbeat song then twisted the button off immediately after hearing the one song that stole her heart, Let’s get it started. She remembered Ethan’s cockiness as he looked up to her, his green eyes so alive and so full of mischief. Just thinking of him hurt. For a brief moment her memories brought him so close, she could taste his kisses. Swiping at tears as they trailed down her face, she licked her lips, only to taste the bitter reality she was alone. Her heart ached; she was positive it would shatter soon if she didn’t get her life back, but what was left? The one and only love of her life was dead, blown to smithereens in Saratoga Lake.

  “Fish food, Savvy. He’s freakin’ fish food. I’m sorry, Ethan. I love you. I never got the chance to tell you. You bastard!” She pounded her fists into the dashboard until her knuckles throbbed. “You wouldn’t let me and now you’ll never know. Oh God, just take me now.” Savanah wiped away her tears, blew her nose and put on the falsest smile she could muster when the car door opened.

  “Baby, that look is all wrong on you. If you want to cry then by the gods cry. You can sit in the labor room with me, and we’ll both have a good drenching and no one will be the wiser.” Jovan pat her daughter’s hand. “Now get me to the damned hospital.”

  ****

  All Hallows Eve

  From her bedroom, her elbows propped up on the windowsill, Savanah watched the snowflakes sift down from the heavens thinking they resembled her heart; small chipped pieces of ice lost in a vast, bleak existence waiting to melt away. A freak storm. And why not, she thought. Everything else in her pathetic existence had turned one-hundred-eighty degrees opposite to the sublime. Savanah realized she’d missed summer and most of fall. Life had become a dull-drag-her-ass-out-of-bed-only-if-she-had-to existence. She got up to eat, pee, vomit every other morning and shower when she couldn’t stand the stench another second and the
n retreat back under the safety of her covers, hiding from reality not monsters. The monsters were easy enough to kill off. Reality scared the daylight from her. Every now and then she’d glance into her mirror and not recognize the starved, lonely woman with a blank expression staring back. Daily, she waited for any sign it was time to get back into the swing of things, but alas, no winged angel slapped her in the head and told her to get her ass back out with the living. Nothing changed. Ethan was gone and her cancer-like-loneliness spread throughout her body, killing her one little cell at a time.

  The silhouettes from the rose garden of leafless, thorny, rosebushes resembled skeletons crawling from a grave. “Beautiful view, Savanah.”

  Hours from now in that very garden, she was supposed to be marrying the love of her life. Instead, she would attempt to put her best face on and try not to break down into a million pieces in front of her family. They didn’t need the stress of worrying, and she didn’t want the attention.

  She yawned, her eyes tearing, and she went back to bed.

  ****

  Jovan paced by Savanah’s room trying to kill two birds with one stone. Calm Rylea down and wake Savanah up. Neither of which were working. The baby cried, and Savanah slept like one.

  André met Jovan carrying Rian. “Come on, wake her up. It’s two in the afternoon. Besides some package just arrived for her.”

  ”What is it?” Jovan asked eyebrows raised.

  “I didn’t open it. It’s not mine.”

  “Did you at least shake it? See if it’s breakable?”

  “And if it is—break it? No, Cherié.” André chuckled. “It is on the counter.”

  “Who sent it?”

  “You’re a nosey little woman.”

  “That’s not all I am, André.” Jovan got a hair’s distance from his mouth and ran her finger across his bottom lip. “I miss these warming my flesh.”

  The door to Savanah’s room opened. André flipped on the switch and set Rian down beside her in the bassinette.

  “Good afternoon, Peanut.”

  “Is it?” Savanah asked, rubbing her eyes.

  “Will you watch these two for your mum and me?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  André grabbed Rylea from Jovan and set the little girl down beside her brother. He wrinkled his nose to his daughter as he closed the door.

  Savanah sauntered over to the bassinette and peeked in, her nose catching some nefarious odor. “Your Papa’s a sly one all right. Okay, which one of you left me a present? Probably both of you, right? Is that why they dumped you two on me?” Savanah picked up Rylea and hugged the little girl to her chest. “Good morning, my little squeaker.” Savanah kissed the blonde beauty with the blackest eyes she’d ever seen and traded her for Rian. She found out fast where the odor came from. “You’re the devil in disguise.” Savanah turned away from the diaper. “You’ve a healthy appetite, don’t you?” Savanah got the little blond boy with light blue eyes like his mother’s cleaned, powdered and rewrapped. Feeling confident in her parenting skills, she grabbed them both and headed to the kitchen.

  “Morning, Molly,” she said in passing.

  “Get back here with at least one of those babies, Missy.”

  “Pick one.” An impish grin spread across Savanah’s face. Molly went to grab Rylea, but Savanah twisted from her. “Nope. Try again.” Molly went after Rian and Savanah did the same thing, teasing. “Sorry, Molly. I just love them both, and they’re both being so good. I promise, when one starts to cry they’re all yours.”

  “Savanah St. James, it’s a blessing seeing that smile of yours. Been way too long.”

  Eyeing a raspberry pie on the counter, Savanah passed Rylea to her. “I can’t hold babies and eat.”

  “Then pass me Rian,” Raven offered as she sauntered in at a snail’s pace, her pregnancy weighing her down.

  Savanah plunked a big kiss on her aunt’s cheek. “Morning, Aunt Ray, how you feeling?”

  “Fat and miserable, thank you. You?”

  “Mostly alive.” Savanah gave a half-shoulder shrug.

  “Are you going to open the box staring at you on the end of the counter?” Raven waddled to it, inkling her head toward the mystery present.

  “It’s probably a razor and since I’ve given up shaving my legs?” Savanah yanked up a pant leg to show she wasn’t kidding.

  Raven blurt out, “Dear lord, girl, you’re hairier than Julian.”

  “Shush.” She turned to walk to the fridge when a strange tug at her heart gave her pause. She coughed to clear her throat, but still, something was there—lodged. “May I?” She hastily swiped Rian’s bottle of milk, unscrewed the nipple and chugged it.

  “That’s breast milk, Savvy. What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Savanah’s eyes watered. She pat her chest hard a few times trying to shake the idea her heart really did break, physically. Savanah eyed the box on the end of the counter and swore she could hear a heart beating! Thump-thump…thump-thump…

  Savanah aimed her index finger toward the box. “I’m going to go. And that box is going in the trash. Now.”

  Savanah picked up the box and the room went black.

  ****

  “Miss St. James, you have something I want and I have something you need. Shall we make a trade?”

  “Where am I? And who am I talking to?” Savanah floated, wearing only her birthday suit in a room with windows everywhere. Bright, warm, light blinded her. She spun in the air, her hair free-floating above her as if she were suspended in a pool of water, weightless.

  “Physically, Miss St. James, your body is on your kitchen floor. Your family is trying to revive you as we speak. Metaphysically, welcome to my world. Please tell me you haven’t forgotten me so soon. I introduced myself to you in New Orleans.”

  “Where are my freaking clothes? Am I dead? Did I just have a heart attack? I died from a broken heart, didn’t I? Why isn’t my heart hurting right now? I feel nothing other than cold.”

  “Do you really want the answers?”

  “I don’t know. Do I? What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I so cold? Please tell me why I’m naked. Oh crap! Can you see me?” A sudden case of self-effacing panic shrouded around her. Trying to cross her legs proved impossible to do in her current state of void. She was neither here nor there, but she was both.

  “You are in between life and death right now. I believe I heard you say a few times now you, ‘just wanted to die.’ Do you really? Choose your words wisely, Miss St. James. What caused you to give up on life?”

  “Did my Papa get me drunk again? Am I dreaming? If I am dreaming I want Ethan not some voice asking me annoying questions, giving me another question in place of an answer.”

  “What is it about Ethan you would choose death to be with him now?”

  Savanah tried scratching her head. That movement alone stopped her. She couldn’t feel her hands or head or anything other than an insatiable itch she couldn’t reach. She looked down. Her body lay crumpled on the floor with her Aunt Raven screaming and her Uncle Jonah doing CPR. “He has my heart, Ethan. I handed it to him on a platter. He kept me safe, made me feel beautiful and loved. And I wanted him to feel the same way.”

  “Miss St. James, I’ll say it once more. I have something you need and you have something I want.”

  “What?”

  “My book.”

  “Are you the vamp that bit me?”

  “What do you think?”

  “There you go again answering me with a bloody question. I’m finding this whole conversation a bit too surreal. If I say yes than I’m talking to Dracula in the nether-world. If I say no I’m certifiably dead.”

  “Why didn’t you open the box? Where were you headed before you dropped off the face of the earth?”

  “Just so you know? That doesn’t have a nice ring to it. To answer you, I was going to the store to tell the woman I no longer need my wedding dress. Been in denial since Ethan died. I just haven’t had the heart
to cancel it. I guess I really don’t have one now do I?” Savanah laughed. And just as quickly she stopped. “Is this purgatory?”

  “No. Purgatory is for sinners. Your soul is pure.”

  “But I melted a mutant. Oh, and Devon’s fingers. Not sure if his penis is still attached. He stopped me mid-charm.”

  “Your soul is safe. The beings you destroyed were mutants, just as Androgen man. As for Devon, the jury’s still out.”

  Savanah found a peculiar smile working its way to her lips. “Are you really Dracula? How are you here?”

  “Believe it or not, I have friends in high places, Miss St. James. Life really isn’t all black and white, nor death. I must tell you, when you were in New Orleans, your Ethan did something to me that no man has done in at least three hundred years of my soulless existence. He restored my faith in man. He did nothing but go on and on about you telling me he’d die to save you. He kept his promise. He said he’d go willingly through the gates of Hell if I allowed you safe passage. Do you remember fighting me in New Orleans? You said the exact things your Ethan did even after only knowing the man a few days. That is why I released him and that is why I had to see you once more and give you this option. Now, for the last time, do we have an accord as your uncle says?”

  “What deal? Am I really making a deal with the devil?”

  “Pretty damn close. Trade with me.”

  “What do I get?”

  “Your heart’s desire.”

  “Okay, then why does my heart ache again?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Serina jumped inside Savanah’s body as soon as she heard the screams from Raven and Molly. She found nothing at all wrong with her niece. She was as healthy as a horse—well with the exception that she’d turned a putrid shade of blue, had no pulse or respirations…and died!

  “Savanah? Please, Serina—save her.” Jovan knelt beside her daughter, blindsided by tears. Her hands shook as she touched her daughter’s clammy face. “André,” Jovan choked, “This isn’t happening. Babies aren’t supposed to die before parents.”

  André wiggled his daughter’s toes. “Please don’t leave me, baby,” he whispered. “Please, Peanut, don’t leave your papa.”