I moved through the darkness. Even in the void, I knew from experience, I was still a siphon. That wasn't an ability bound to my body. I'd inherited that as a Campbell through my soul. It was part and parcel of my spirit.
"Hello, mother," a familiar voice said.
I turned around. "Merlin!"
My son, appearing in old age, opened his arms. I hugged him at tight as I could. "I can't believe it... I mean, am I dead?"
"What is dead, really?" Merlin asked. "Your body is presently lifeless, yes. But you, mother, are certainly alive."
I shook my head. "They said I died before."
Merlin nodded. "I saw you appear for just a moment. You seemed... aloof..."
I snorted. "I was high."
Merlin laughed. "I gathered that. You were muttering something about... who was it... Burt Reynolds?"
I sighed. "One of your grandmother's crushes. I suppose, in that state, he keeps manifesting as a consequence of my desperation."
"When we are lost," Merlin said. "We always seek our mothers."
"Even now?" I asked. "Do you still look to me?"
"I've always thought of you, mom when things were dire. But this is not one of those times for me. This is my time to rest."
I nodded. "I'm not ready for this."
"You will find your way to Guinee eventually. To Annwn. When someone appeals to you, perhaps, you'll find your way to the crossroads."
I shook my head. "If only I'd figured out how to wield Legba's aspect myself... maybe I would have seen it coming."
"Voodoo, much like my own Druidry, is a practice honored most by love and sacrifice. You've known sacrifice, mother. But why do you close yourself up to love?"
I shook my head. "I still love your father, Merlin."
"Do you?" Merlin asked. "I'm not sure you do. I think you moved on from him some time ago. But you're certainly using the love you once had for him as an excuse not to open yourself again to another."
"Agwe wants to love me," I said. "But you're right. I haven't let him in. But he hasn't exactly made it easy, either."
Merlin nodded. "Unlike you, Agwe has always been a Loa. He was there, at the behest of the All-Father, the one whom they call Bondye, when the spirit of creation hovered over the waters. You expect him to understand the ways of human romance?"
I sighed and sat down on the cold, damp floor of the cave. "I suppose not. I don't know what I expect. A friend of mine not long ago suggested I haven't allowed myself to be vulnerable because I don't want to experience heartbreak again."
Merlin nodded. "The avoidance of pain is a powerful motivation. Second, only, to love itself."
"Second to it..." I said, repeating Merlin's words. "You're trying to tell me love is worth the risk?"
"Of course it is, Mother," Merlin said. "I know you haven't experienced it yet. But when I was growing up, you knew that it would hurt like hell when you had to leave again. But that didn't stop you from coming to see me."
I nodded. "Because I love you, Merlin. Staying away from you would have been more painful."
"It is also more painful to live life loveless than it is to open yourself up to love, even if such love might come with heartache eventually."
I scratched my head. "That might be. But it looks like I'm not going to be making those trips to see you. You know, on account of being dead. Or, being compelled by those damned caplatas."
Merlin cocked his head. "Why do you say that? You still retain Legba's aspect, other, even in death. It isn't too late."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Merlin laughed and waved his hand through the air. A vision appeared in front of me. My body, at the bottom of the sea. Mercy's bite still bleeding.
"She bit me...."
"She did," Merlin said. "That will certainly change things for you in the future. But look closer..."
I squinted, trying to make clear what was happening. The vision Merlin gave me wasn't exactly in high definition. Everything he showed me was happening underwater, and it was like I was looking through the water as if I were in human form. Distances were skewed. Shapes were slightly warped. But I could see what was happening.
"Those hooves," I said. "What in the world is Tahlia doing?"
"I believe Erzulie's aspect is contained in those hooves," Merlin said.
"And Agwe, his hand is on my chest."
"He's healing your body, mom."
"But I was bitten by a vampire, I..."
Merlin nodded. "When your body is healed, should you find your way through the crossroads, you will be reborn with the aspect of Baron Samedi."
"I'll be a mer-vampire?" I asked.
"Yes," Merlin said. "But with Fomorian magic, you'll have fewer side effects than the rest. So long as magic courses through you, the life-giving magic of Fomoria, not even the sun will harm you."
"Are you sure?" I asked. "How do you know?"
Merlin laughed. "I lived a long life as gatekeeper. There aren't many things I haven't seen."
"Including a Fomorian getting bitten by a vampire?" I asked.
Merlin smiled. "It doesn't matter, mother. And nothing will matter at all if you do not choose to be reborn."
"But if I'm reborn, and if Odette and Nephtalie summon me again..."
"They can and probably will summon you again if you do not find your own way to the crossroads, mother."
"Find my own way..."
"It is not as though you are without help," another voice said. I looked up. A beautiful woman stared down at me. Her face was illuminated by a pink aura. Her hair was long and black. That was all I could see. The rest of her face was obscured on account of the brightness of her magical glow.
"Your friends have bidden me come to your aid, La Sirene."
"Ezrulie?" I asked.
"Stand, La Sirene," Ezrulie said.
I glanced at Merlin. He nodded.
I stood up and narrowed my eyes. "You can take me to the crossroads?"
"Yes and no," Ezrulie said. "I can show you the way. I can open you up to the possibility."
I bit my lip. "I'm sorry. I don't understand."
"I was summoned by love. The love of both a dear friend and a husband whose heart remains open to you if you would only open your heart to him."
"I want to, but..."
"But what, La Sirene?"
"I'm afraid..."
"Love is always frightening," Erzulie said. "But love wouldn't be love at all if it were safe."
I bit the inside of my cheek. "I know. You're right. I don't know if I want to admit it. But yes, I know what you're saying is true. But I don't know if I'm capable of love again."
Ezrulie shook her head. "Of course you are. Tell me, why did you, against all that made sense, try to save the Campbell girl?"
"Henry's daughter, Nephtalie?" I asked.
I shrugged. "I couldn't stand by knowing he was probably going to try and kill his daughter."
"The Campbell man allowed fear to overwhelm his capacity to love. He was afraid of what might happen if his daughter were allowed to be born. If the caplata, Messalina, might come back from the grave."
"I know," I said. "It happened to me. When I was a girl. She came for me."
"And perhaps, had Nephtalie been born and raised with her natural parents, she would have overcome her even as you did."
I shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, how could we know for sure?"
"We don't know what's going to happen, ever. Not unless we've been to the future. Come to think of it, you had been to the future, hadn't you?"
I laughed. "I suppose I had. I had come from the future."
"And how did things turn out? Tell me, what of what was born of fear turned out well?"
I shook my head. "Not a lot. What Odette did to Nephtalie, how she must've warped her mind with anger, hate, and yes, even fear."
"But what ever has been born of love would you say wasn't worth it in the end?" Ezrulie asked.
I glanced at Merlin. "If I never loved his
father... he'd never have been born."
"The pain was worth it, indeed," Ezrulie said, smiling at me-for the first time, I could see through the glow. Perhaps my eyes—or whatever I had in the place of eyes in the void—had adjusted to it.
"So what do I need to do? It's one thing to tell me I need to open myself to love. It's another thing to actually do it."
"To desire to love is the seed that grows into true love, La Sirene. Yes, the first thing you must do is choose love. After that, all you'll need to do is water it."
I snorted. "Water won't be a problem."
Erzulie laughed. "I suppose it won't be."
"Aright," I said. "I'm ready. I choose love."
"Delightful," Erzulie said, almost giggling. "I just love, love!"
I smiled and looked at Merlin. I opened my arms and hugged him. He gave me a kiss on my cheek. I kissed his cheek back.
"Love you, mom," Merlin said.
"I love you, too."
The second I said it, Merlin disappeared, his image fading into the darkness of the void.
I looked back at Erzulie as she placed her hand on my chest. Her pink glow, whatever magic it was she was wielding, passed from her hand into my chest.
"You are a siphon," Erzulie said. "May this magic be yours, and may you amplify it."
I did what she said. I felt the magic, much like I would any other magic I siphoned, and I allowed it well up in my body.
It tickled a little. Who would have thought love tickles? It hurts. And it tickles. Go figure.
As love swelled within me, a bright light flashed. I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands.
When I opened them and pulled my hands away from my face, I stood at an intersection of two gravel roads.
I was back at the crossroads...
Before, I didn't notice the surroundings. I'd just seen Legba, almost as if he'd appeared as the sole figure in a dark room.
Now, he stood in front of me, smiling at me through his crooked teeth. Then, he nodded at me, tipping his straw hat my way.
"Welcome back, La Sirene. It is good to see you've finally arrived on your own accord."
"On my own? I died, Papa Legba. But at least no one summoned me here from the void this time. Or, from Guinee. I mean, is this Guinee? Technically, I mean?"
"Technically," Legba said. "It is. And it isn't. This is the gateway between Guinee and earth. I should say, more often than not, I guard these crossroads well. But alas, the bokors have learned how to manipulate the magic of this place. I am sorry, before, I could do nothing to stop it. I couldn't even warn you. My tongue was bound."
I nodded. "I understand. But I'm here now. Is my body healed?"
Legba nodded. "It is. It only lacks its proper soul to become whole again."
"So, will I be able to talk to you freely now?" I asked.
"Each of my queens," Legba said, "must be a queen of hearts."
"Well, that was corny," I quipped.
Legba billowed a laugh. "I suppose it was. But this is my way."
"Can I also be a queen of diamonds?" I asked. "Because my hubby still hasn't given me my rock!"
Legba continued laughing as he shook his head. "That is a matter I'll have to leave up to you and your husband to sort out."
I winked at Papa Legba. I might have been the first person to ever wink at the Loa. But dead or not, at the moment, a southern girls' charm dies hard.
Papa Legba pointed down one of the roads. "Follow this path, and you'll return to your body, free of any other's influence."
Chapter Forty-Four
I walked down the gravel road, the world around me-something between Guinee and earth-faded with every step until the whole world went dark.
And then...
I gasped. I was staring up at Agwe and Tahlia.
"Her eyes," Tahlia said. "Did she..."
"Yes," Agwe said.
I looked back at both of them. I had a craving. Not like anything I'd ever felt. Was this what it felt like to be a vampire?
I inhaled, siphoning as much Fomorian magic through Agwe that I could. The craving subsided.
"Your eyes, they were red before," Tahlia said. "But now..."
"Our magic will keep that side of me at bay," I said, looking around. "The sharks, they're on the way."
Agwe nodded. "The wyrms are fighting them off. Trying to buy us some time to save you."
I looked at Agwe and smiled. "Thank you for saving me."
"Of course," Agwe said. "You're my wife."
I kissed him on the cheek and took off as fast as I could swim. Holy crap. I knew vampires could run fast... but now... as a mermaid vampire, I could swim fast, too.
Nammu was chomping through the head of one of the sharks even as three others gnawed at her silk armor.
I focused on the sharks. "Leave her!"
The sharks stopped trying to bite Nammu and turned to me.
"I said stop!"
Again, they weren't listening. Of course, they weren't listening. I commanded them to attack, albeit through Nephtalie's compulsion, and then... I died...
My control over the sharks left them to their instincts. They were attacking the wyrms because that was the last order they had. And they came after me because so far, they hadn't been able to get through the wyrms' armor.
I was vulnerable.
I used my speed. I was faster than these sharks. Swimming around them in circles, they were left in confusion. More sharks were approaching from the distance, still responding to the original command.
All of them, every shark or creature in the ocean that had been compelled, was coming here.
And I couldn't compel them. Not anymore...
Unless...
If Mercy could use Baron Samedi's aspect, the one she inherited because she was a vampire, then I supposed I could, too.
"Fight them off," I shouted. "Once they're all here, I'm going to try and take control of them!"
Agwe and Tahlia swam up, their tridents in hand, and mounted their wyrms.
I mounted Nammu, and, with a hard shake of her long body, the sharks who'd been chomping at her armor went flying.
"Get me close!" I shouted.
Nammu dove after one and, my arm extended. I thrust my trident right through the open mouth of one of the sharks.
I dispelled my trident as soon as the shark's rotted corpse started to sink. I resummoned it immediately after.
I didn't know how to use this... aspect... Baron Samedi. He was the last Loa I ever wanted to have inside of me. Not that I ever wanted a Loa inside of me. I mean, aside from my husband, I suppose. If he ever mans up.
I didn't have the time to try and figure out Samedi's aspect the same way I did Legba's. I needed to figure out how to claim control of these zombie sharks immediately.
I tried to focus my mind.
Hard to focus, though, when I'm taking out as many as I can with my trident.
Three more sharks down, much the same way as the first.
But more were approaching. I could see them, their eyes now black, coming at me from a distance.
Why not red eyes? That must be what happens when they are harnessed, bound to a particular Loa's power, or under the command of a bokor or caplata.
"Nammu," I said. "I don't know how to do this."
Speak to them all as you speak to me, La Sirene. When you use our connection. You are connected to these in much the same way. These beasts don't understand words so mcuh as they sense your will.
"Got it," I said. It made sense. When I saw Mercy attempting to control the sharks, she didn't say anything out loud. She must've been speaking to them, trying to reach out to them on a psychic level.
If only she was still here...
She bit me, left me for dead, more or less. I didn't blame her. But once I died, why didn't she just assume control of the sharks?
I reached out with my psychic connection. I sensed Nammu, of course, but also the sharks in my vicinity. I spread my will as wide as pos
sible. I had to connect to each one of them: thousands, all in an instant. I looked at those near me. Their eyes turned red again. I had them under my influence.
I spoke-maybe they didn't need words, but I did. I exerted my will through language. Fend off the others... don't let them hurt the wyrms...
A small group of sharks, those under my command, turned and charged the others.
I tried to reach out with my mind to the rest, but I couldn't... it was like I only had the power, the strength, to command a small group at once.
No wonder Mercy left... Perhaps she tried and discovered, quickly, she didn't have the ability...
But I did. That was why Odette needed Nephtalie to harness my aspect. To use me to command the sharks. Because Nepthalie and I both could siphon power and amplify it.
I wasn't sure how that worked with the Baron's aspect. But I had Fomorian power. If I filled my body with it, if I let it consume my whole frame...
I inhaled. More power. Not just from Agwe, but from...
A sharp pain struck me in the back. I reached, but nothing was there.
Another one in my gut.
What the hell?
"The Caplata!" Tahlia shouted, swimming past on her shark. "She's using a voodoo doll!"
My strand of hair. The one Marinette took from me in the dungeon. Nico said they needed someone’s DNA when creating Voodoo dolls. That must’ve been how they made it. My tail stretched out, pulled from my torso as if it was about to be ripped from my body.
Nammu, we have to take her out...
I didn't have to say much more.
Nammu took off through the water toward the boat where the two caplatas were...
And with a single chomp, she swallowed the back half of the boat.
The pains subsided.
"Nammu... did you just..."
Tastes like chicken...
I laughed out loud. I couldn't believe she swallowed Odette.
But Nephtalie was still there. I sensed her power.
I siphoned more from Agwe, but I felt some of my magic leaving even as I drew it from him.
Nephtalie was siphoning my magic...
I tried to reach out to the sharks again. Still not enough power. I needed more. I claimed a dozen at a time, maybe a few more, and sent them against the rest. But it wasn't enough...
Wyrmrider Vengeance: An Underwater Magic Urban Fantasy (The Fomorian Wyrmriders Book 2) Page 23