“Charmed,” he managed.
“Ya think?” Frederica said.
“Well I am so sorry,” Erica said. “Defense mechanism. I mean he was going to shoot me.”
“Well your entrance was a tad over the top. Why the hell did you morph into a shark?”
“Some of us are not as good at teleportation as you seem to always be.”
“That’s because I studied,” Frederica said. “But why a shark?”
“Not just a shark, little sister, a great-white. They happen to be very fast. Lucky I was in the neighborhood when Uncle Jon contacted me.”
“You’re kidding? Uncle Jon sent you? You’re my help?”
“No darling, you are my help.”
“Look…”— “
“No. You look what I have.”
Scott had heard the two as if from a distance, but from that distance he was enraptured by Erica’s beauty. He watched dreamily as the woman handed Frederica a sliver necklace with a glowing opal at the end. Frederica’s eyes gazed at the thing.
“That’s auntie Emm’s,” the woman breathed.
“It’s mine now,” Erica said smiling, and beneath that smile Scott melted. “I suggest that you make good use of it and find our course.”
“It’s not my ship.”
“Oh, I am sure that Scott Winsted will let us use it for a while,” Erica crooned. Her eyes electrified him. “Won’t you Scott? I would be ever so grateful.”
“Uh,” he managed. “Sure.”
“How sweet,” she said smiling. “Now run along little sister, play with your new boat. Scott Winsted and I need to have a little chat.”
“It’s a ship,” Frederica said.
“Whatever.” The goddess took Scotts hand. “Show me your boat Scottie?”
She took his hand and led him to the master bedroom below. He floated behind her, trails of sea-foam drifting in her wake. And as those streams of scented foam floated by, he watched in awe as her costume melted away. And when she sank nude onto his satin sheets, she seemed more than alive. It was as if every inch of her glistened and invited his touch, and he was filled with a desire that was far more than lust or passion; it was a need as urgent as life itself.
He found himself naked in her arms. Her warmth seemed to fuse with him, and her shimmer wrapped and enveloped him exciting every fiber of a nerve-ending on his body. She caressed the back of his neck. Her delicate fingers were softer than a child’s. With her other hand, she stroked his back and his muscles rippled. He found his fingers lost in her raven tresses weaving through the essence of night. Her yielding breasts lit a fire to his desire. And as her velvety soft thighs swathed his own, he suddenly felt himself as a crass and ungainly mortal in the presence of the divine.
But then her lips brushed his own and the delicate feeling sent wave of wonder through his heart and soul. And when she kissed him, it was as if she had not just forgiven his earthly existence, but also compelled him to join her yearnings.
Her heavenly body writhed beneath him, urging him to please her, and if he had ever wanted anyone in his entire life it was to please her. That childlike hand took him. He was full and throbbing to the point of pain. But when she parted her thighs and led him home, he was plunged beyond paradise. With her touch he found the strength of Hercules, and he drove them both into wails and cries of eternal ecstasy.
On the bridge, Frederica scanned the controls. They were simple enough. She held the opal in her palm. She stroked it with her ring finger. Colors began to emerge. They swirled and pulsed. She hovered over the little red veins and the others faded. She coaxed the ruby layer and the stone warmed.
“Let’s go find your sisters,” she said softly.
She smiled and settled the necklace between her breasts. She steered the craft to follow the warmth of the gem, trying to ignore the wailing from below.
*****
It was after midnight when Erica strode onto the bridge wrapped in a silk robe and carrying a cup of coffee.
“Where’re we headed?” she asked.
“A small island called Mataso,” Fred answered.
“What’s there?”
“Turtles mostly. Hopefully a pomegranate. How’s our host?”
“Oh little sis, you’re so funny,” she laughed. “When I charm a man, he stays charmed.”
“Then why is he pointing a pistol at us?”
“Because I couldn’t find my rifle,” he said, standing behind the two.
“It’s in the life-vest closet,” Fred said.
“Scottie?” Erica said demurely. “Scottie baby please put that silly thing down. You’re frightening me.”
“So?”
“Scottie, honey when I get frightened I tend to act rashly.”
He leveled the gun and aimed between her eyes.
“Or not,” she said. “Oh what do you want?”
“Mia,” he said, “Bring her back now.”
“Mia,” Erica said. “Mia Elverelli?”
“I want her back.”
“Well that explains everything,” Erica said throwing her hands in the air. “Jeeze Fred, you sure know how to pick ‘em. That Witch.”
“Rikki!”
“Well she is a witch.”
They heard the pistol cock. Fred turned slowly, instinctively holding her hands up.
“Let me explain?” she said timidly.
To her surprise and relief, he did. Fred told of her quest, weaving images in his mind as she spoke. Rikki tried to embellish, but he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in anything that she had to say. When Fred had finished the man looked doubtful.
“So,” he mulled. “You kidnap my girlfriend and hijack my ship because you want spring back. What is so important about spring?”
“Oh,” Fred said with a shrug. “Other than the fact that it’s pretty, it does serve some functions. Like initiating the growing season for the entire northern hemisphere. Stuff like that.”
“And,” Rikki added. “I understand that Ms. Elverelli loves her pesto with fresh pine nuts and basil.”
“I am not talking to you,” Scott snapped.
“Why are you angry at me?” she asked. “A few hours ago-” – “
“You used me!”
“I seduced you.”
“It was a trick!”
“It was a fu— “
“Enough!” Fred cried.
Her voice was a command and they both obeyed. She curled her fingers and then opened them in a waving motion. Scott felt something warm and wormy in his hand. He yelped, jumped back and dropped the snake that was once his pistol. He looked at the woman astonished. Erica started to laugh, but with a gesture from Fred the man was silenced. Fred walked right up to him. She peered deep into his eyes. Scott felt his blood slush to ice.
“I’m sorry,” Frederica said. “Truly I am.”
She held his gaze and he couldn’t move. Then it was as though some strange soft light came from her eyes and began to burrow and creep into him. He felt as though he were being searched, and then the searching paused at his heart, caressed, and then pulled away. And as her light emerged from his eyes, it drew with it a sort of grey mist. He stared as she rolled the smoky stuff between her palms.
And then she opened her hands and he saw that the vapors had formed a sphere and in that sphere, he saw the face of Mia. The ice in his veins melted and as his heart throbbed again he reached for the shifting mist, but it was caught by no wind he could feel and bit by bit it scattered into the night air. He grasped at the nothing floating away. And then from the depth of his soul, he groaned with an anguish such as he had never known.
“I am so very, very sorry Scott.”
But he barely heard the words as he stumbled back and then collapsed to his knees.
He had known heartbreak before, but nothing like this. It was as if a part of his very being, part of his essence as vanished and the gaping hole that it had left began to fill with loss and sorrow and pain. But with that bitter emptin
ess came the understanding that he had been deceived by Mia. With his own eyes, he had seen the hex she had place on him exorcised, and with his own eyes he had seen that spell for what it was; airy nothing.
And then he did something that he once vowed that he would never, ever do – he wept.
Frederica’s heart broke. When first she met the man, she thought him an arrogant brat. Then when Erica had charmed him so easily she thought him a fool. Now, listening to his pitiful sobs, she could only see him as frightened and hurt little boy. She thought to chant some sort of easing on him, but then she thought that the boy had been manipulated enough by sorcery. She had to leave him alone.
It was almost an hour before he stopped sobbing. In that time, she looked to her navigation and let the opal guide her. Erica had gone below. Fred watched the radar. There was a blip on intercept. No doubt a coincidence, but she altered her course a few degrees. Not a half hour later, the blip changed course too. She throttled ahead to three-quarters and altered course again. That seemed to do it.
She thought about the witch Mia and wondered why the woman would want to toy with Scott. She didn’t need money. She didn’t need notoriety. She couldn’t think of any possible reason—
“Why?” Scott said. He stood beside her. He was shaken but he was calm. “Why would Mia do that to me?”
“I don’t know,” Fred said. “I don’t know the woman. Because she could? Who can say?”
“Doesn’t matter now,” he sighed. Where are we headed?”
“Mataso,” she said, hearing the word ‘we’.
“You think that’s where your gemstone is?”
“I do.”
“Looks like we’re gonna have company,” he said pointing to the radar.
“Shit!”
*****
“Get Rikki up here,” she said as she steered and throttled.
She had been heading to the island’s southern harbor. She thought to sail due west and then north to try and hide in the island’s shadow, but the other blip started to steam fast. Whoever they were, they were no coincidence, and they weren’t shy about it.
“What is it?” Rikki asked as she reached the bridge.
“I don’t know,” Fred said. “That thing has been dogging us all night.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t know!”
“Easy enough to find out,” Scott said.
He keyed something into the nav-pad and beneath the blip lines of info appeared.
KPN – Najin –AK-630
“What does that mean?” Erica asked.
“Wizards.” Scott said shaking his head and pulling out his phone. “You really should come into the twenty-first century . . . let’s see, Janes Ships . . . ah, here we – holy shit.”
“What?”
“KPN,” he said. “Korean People’s Navy. That’s a bloody North Korean frigate.”
“You’re crazy,” Erica laughed. “Korea is like thousands of miles away. Why would they have a boat way out here?”
“Four thousand miles to be precise,” he said working his phone. “And a Soviet frigate is not a boat.”
“I still say you’re crazy.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Fred sang. “What matters is that they are there, and we are out-gunned.”
“And it’s coming right at us,” Erica sang back.
“Well,” Scott said. “You’re supposed to be witches. Can’t you just send them away like you did Mia?”
“Mia,” Fred replied. “Is all of a hundred and twenty pounds. That boat’s a little bit bigger.”
“It’s a ship,” Erica corrected.
“Well do something!”
“I suggest that we run,” Erica said. “I can make this baby fly.”
“Wait,” Fred said. “We’re so close. You guys run. I’m going to search the island.”
“How you gonna get there?” Scott asked. The two witches looked at him. “Oh, right. But can this little thing outrun a combat ship?”
“Watch me, darling,” Erica said taking the wheel.
“I’d rather not,” he replied. “I’d rather go with Fred.”
“Oh no . . .” Fred protested.
She argued. He was adamant. She gave in. She took his hand and led him to the aft deck. Erica turned in a huff, set the ship due west and gunned it. Fred and Scott almost lost their footing. Fred wrapped her arms around him. When they got their balance, Scott was amazed at the yacht’s speed.
He was also amazed that the witch was holding him so close and so tight. And holding her back he was more amazed by the feel of her body. That frock-coat had hidden her well. Beneath she felt so very slender and yet very firm. Her breasts were much more than he would have imagined and the small of her back told of a wasp waist. Her hair smelled of flowers and her warmth crept through her clothes and seeped onto his skin.
And then he realized that it wasn’t her warmth he was feeling. The two of them were suddenly encased in a pink translucent membrane. The darkness beyond seemed so far away.
“Okay,” she said. “Hold me tight. This is going to be weird.”
Weird was not the word.
He suddenly felt the deck fall slowly away from his feet as they rose. Through the pink haze he saw a full moon glowing brightly above, its reflection dappling on the dark water below. Then the water began to glide quickly beneath them and the yacht was out of sight. The leading face of their strange bubble began to glow yellowy-orange while behind them thin blue-white vapor trailed. Then the moon glow disappeared and he saw land rushing beneath them. They slowed. The colors surrounding their cocoon faded, and the pink bubble melted away. He found his feet on dry ground. The cool of the pre-dawn air enveloped him, but the warmth of her body remained. And for a moment so did she.
He was softer than she had imagined. Fred had first seen him in nothing but cut-off shorts and a baseball cap, and he looked sculpted; as if his body was the handiwork of years of personal trainers. But now, holding him in the cool tropical night, she felt him to be more than just a managed and manicure thing. He was real and he was human and he was alive. She could feel his heart pounding and she leaned in to hear more.
And then she found herself.
“Well then,” she said pulling away and fixing her coat. “We’re here.”
“Did we, um, did we fly?”
“No, actually,” she said. “We stayed still. The earth rotated beneath us. You see, the real trick to that is – oh never mind. We have a pomegranate to find.”
Mataso is a small, undeveloped volcanic island, sparsely populated but not deserted. They had landed midway up the eastern leeward side of the mountain. The forest was thick, but not dense, and the opal led Fred down the slope toward the white sand beaches. The jungle came alive with bird-calls as the sun rose, and while they often heard the flutter of wings they saw no creatures.
They reached a small clearing from where they could see the coast in the mountain shadow. They paused and scanned the idyllic scene below. They could smell the salt air and thought they could hear the surf gently washing the shore.
“So beautiful,” Fred said softly.
Without thinking she found her head resting on his shoulder. She quickly pulled away.
“That’s weird,” he said. “I can almost hear the waves.”
“Mm, hypnotic.”
He was silent a moment. She was about to move on when his hand stopped her.
“Where are the birds?” he asked.
Fred looked up at him, then to the sky and then to the beach. Then they both stared at the two armed soldiers standing stark against the white sands.
*****
They crept down the slope. Like any other soldiers, the men were dressed in camouflage, bristling with packs and gear and carrying nasty looking weapons. On their sleeves Fred could barely make out a rectangular red patch, and they were Asian.
“Who are they,” Scott asked. “And what are they doing here?”
“I don’t know and I don’t ca
re,” Fred said. “And I don’t want to find out. We go this way.”
She led them north along the slope, keeping to the forest. But to their dismay they spotted more soldiers. They seemed to be stationed at intervals. Fred and Scott kept to their trek. The opal was getting warmer against her skin. They reached a place where two more soldiers stood, and the opal nearly flared.
“It’s there,” she whispered. “Somewhere on the beach right there.”
“I wish you hadn’t turned my pistol into a snake,” he said.
She looked at him, looked at the guards, then looked at the others within shouting distance. Scott shrugged.
“I still don’t get what they’re doing here,” he said. “It’s a hunch that they’re not conducting exercises.”
“They’re waiting,” Fred said. “For me. Or someone like me.”
“Why?”
“They must want what we want.”
“Huh? How would they know? And why would they want it?”
“I suppose,” she sighed. “That’s what I need to find out.”
“You’re not thinking of going down there?”
“That is where the pomegranate is,” she said. “And it doesn’t look as though they are going anywhere soon.”
“They’ll cut you to pieces!”
“You keep forgetting--”— “
“I know,” he said, “you’re a witch.”
“Right,” she said with a smile. “Now I need you to be my lifeline.”
She took off the necklace and dropped it around his neck. She explained what he had to do in case there was trouble.
“You’re expecting no trouble?” he asked.
“Suppose not,” she said. “Just, if you hear me shout ‘pineapple’ you go.”
“That your safe-word?”
“Oh shut up.”
She made her way to the edge of the clearing. He thought that he saw the slightest shimmer in the air around her. Fred waited in the foliage until the sun had risen high enough to light the beach. The two soldiers squinted. They spoke a little. One handed the other a candy bar. She took a breath and made her move. She materialized between them.
THE HEALING HEART Page 84