He pressed himself against me and groaned. “Rhys! Stop it. You’re hurt!” I meant it, but I was playful and enjoying every second of it. There wasn’t a chance that I was going to miss out on a single moment I could have with him.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve never felt better.” His hands grasped firmly onto my backside as he ground his thick erection against me.
“Someone’s happy to see me.”
I giggled as his lips made their ways to my neck, nipping and caressing the whole way. He was setting my senses on fire with each stroke of his tongue against my skin. When his tongue flicked against my ear, my knees buckled. If it wasn’t for Rhys’s body being flush with my own, I’d have been a puddle on the floor.
I wanted desperately to feel all of him like I’d wanted to for what seemed like forever, but I had to remember he wasn’t in any shape to be getting hot and heavy.
“Rhys…” I said, putting a little pressure on his shoulder to calm things down a bit, yet he wasn’t responding. “Rhys, we need to slow down. You’re wounded, remember?”
He pulled back at that with the most incredulous expression.
“Ya heard da girl. Get ya backside under da covers before I have to put a tin ear on ya.” The familiar, weathered voice froze the both of us. It would’ve been awkward if I wasn’t so damn happy to hear the old woman’s thick Cajun accent again.
I wiggled out from under Rhys’s heavy form and made for his adoptive mother.
“Mama Yansa! I’ve missed you guys so much!”
I threw my arms around her stout frame, overcome with happiness. She squeezed me tight, patting my back as the tears started to flow. Her frame was small, but she had immense strength in her worn limbs. That was the feeling of home, her and Rhys. The only thing that was missing was Angie and Arlen, now that he’d become a permanent fixture in her life. At least I hoped so, anyways.
A loud knock on the door frame captured everyone’s attention. Our heads all swiveled around to see a tall man darkening the doorway. There was something about him that was strange, though I couldn’t really figure out what it was.
He was thin and muscular with a nothing more than a grey vest which was pulled taught across his broad chest. Jeans were slung low on his hips, revealing the edges of a V that disappeared beneath his waistband. He had more skin on display than half of the women on Bourbon Street and I couldn’t help my eyebrows climbed up my forehead.
His dark, calculating eyes surveyed all three of us without saying a single word. He was noticeably not human, although it wouldn’t be detectable by normal humans. His hair stuck out slightly from his head, tied into tiny tight braids. I couldn’t help being drawn to his eyes. They were so dark they would’ve been mistaken for black, and I was almost certain he was wearing eye liner. It was hard to tell against his rich chocolate toned skin. There was something about him that made me want to see what I could find out about him. I was like a moth to a flame.
“Tyrique! I wasn’t expecting you back yet. Is everything okay?” Rhys asked, being the first of us to regain his wits.
“No, not really.” He eyed me warily before focusing intently on Rhys. “There’s been some pretty significant…developments.”
“Nyanga, ya best be keepin’ ya funny mojo to yourself. Ain’t nobody here want that messin’ with their heads.”
“At least I still have mojo,” he teased, thrusting his hips out suggestively.
Mama didn’t bat an eye at it though. She squared right up to him and let him have it. “Boy, don’t be fooled by my outward appearances. Ya might be findin’ yourself quite disappointed if ya do. ‘Sides which, ya wouldn’t know real mojo if it jumped up and bit ya in da ass.” The old woman had a twinkle in her eye that just screamed mischief.
“What’s going on, man?” Rhys asked, his no nonsense attitude slid securely back into place. He wasn’t the type to joke around much; all business, all of the time.
The interloper eyed me, not saying a word as he was plainly unsure of me. Rhys quickly picked up on the man’s apprehension and spoke up.
“Sorry, I forgot you two haven’t met. Tyrique, this is Maya. Maya, this is Tyrique. He’s been helping me.”
I nodded in understanding, but my face betrayed my confusion. Despite not knowing what Tyrique was, I refused to ask, knowing full well that it was considered rude. It was a mistake that I had made with Arlen and didn’t care to repeat.
Tyrique stepped forward, taking the initiative. “Enchanté, mademoiselle. Nyanga, at your service. Or witch doctor to the layperson. Whichever you’d prefer, but friends just call me Tyrique.” He bowed before me, taking ahold of my hand and pressing a chaste kiss along my knuckles. “If you need anything, anything at all, please do not hesitate to ask.” His eyes dipped to my breasts before returning to my face. He was grinning wide enough that I could see the bright white flashes of his teeth peeking out.
Witch doctor? I hadn’t even known they existed, like so many other species and creatures. I’d been through so much in a very short amount of time. It was easy to forget that I was still very new to all of it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Back off, Ty. She’s spoken for,” Rhys butted in, his protective nature on display. He reached out and hooked a hand around my waist. He pulled me to him in an unusually possessive show of affection.
“Ah. My bad,” Tyrique said, holding his hands up in surrender. If I were him, I wouldn’t have wanted to challenge Rhys either. “Hey, man, can I, uh, talk to you outside?”
Rhys nodded, and pressed a tender kiss to my temple. “We’ll be right back.”
He stalked out the door after Tyrique. It never ceased to amaze me the grace with which he moved. Despite being the large, muscular man that he was, he was lithe like a cat and moved as silently as a predator.
I plopped down into one of the available seats at Mama Yansa’s table and squirmed until I found a comfortable position in the wooden seat. At that very moment, Moonbeam trotted into the room and hopped up onto the table like she owned the place. It had been so long since I’d seen my feline companion in person that happy tears slipped down my cheeks. It was the first time I’d felt close to being whole again since the entire ordeal had begun. The only person missing was Angie, and I suppose Arlen by proxy.
Holding my hand out, I beckoned to my spirit guide. The cat moved in front of me and butted her head along my knuckles in her own unique way of saying hello.
Moonbeam had found me several years earlier. She’d been sitting on my front porch as though she were waiting just for me. I hadn’t found out until I’d come to Mama Yansa’s house that she was so much more than an ordinary cat. She’d been sent to me by Damballah himself to guide me along my journey and aid me when I needed it most. When I’d left with the Baron, I’d had to leave her behind. Right then, I didn’t think I could have missed an animal more. I kissed the silken fur just behind her ears, relishing the moment.
Mama was chopping up an onion and dumping it in to the pot that was hanging over the fire when she turned her attention back to us.
“Good to see ya lookin’ happy again. Both of ya, actually. I was getting tired of him moping around and being as moody as a damn grizzly bear.”
I chuckled at the thought of Rhys being emotional in any way. He was always so buttoned down and rarely let people see a vulnerable side of him.
“I take it he wasn’t the most fun person to be around?”
I remembered the vision of him sitting alone in the bar, pounding back liquor like he didn’t have a reason to live anymore.
“I need ya to understand somethin’, Rhys ain’t like other men. He’s different and he’s been through more than any child ever should be. If ya back and in it for da long haul, then be up front wit’ him ‘bout it. Don’t string da boy along only to hurt him later.”
My hackles rose at the implication that any of it had been my fault. Mama knew that I was as much a victim to circumstances as he was. I had to assume
her advice was coming from a place of love and devotion to her son.
Mama had never spoken of Rhys’s past before, so I didn’t know much about it, only that he’d been found wandering alone and lost. No one ever came looking for him and Mama Yansa raised him into the man he was. She’d taught him the art of voodoo and given him the task of watching over me. If it wasn’t for his careful surveillance, I’d be dead or worse. I owed him so much more than my life and I knew I’d never be able to truly repay him.
“Do you know what happened before you found him?”
I couldn’t help but picture an innocent young boy, scared and alone without a single soul in the world who cared for him. What kind of scars did something like that leave on someone?
Mama had that far off gleam in her eyes.
She sighed deeply. “I had been watchin’ him for a long while before I took him in. He was a pitiful little thing, all skin and bones, caked in dirt with clothes several sizes too small that were no better than rags.” She shook her head as she spoke. “He had these big brown eyes that just begged ya to help him in any way ya could. Ya see, his mama was just a baby herself. She was twenty-two when I took him in. Rhys was nine then.”
“Wow. I had no idea that she was so young. That would’ve made her, what? Like thirteen when she had him?”
Mama nodded solemnly. “She was. Seventeen-year-old neighbor boy got ahold of her one day on her way home from school. He sweet talked her and paid her da attention she didn’t get anywhere else. He destroyed her that afternoon, hurt her real bad. Some months later when her belly started to swell, her drunk daddy threw her out.”
My heart was hurting for the girl who’d brought my lover into this world. Tears slipped down my cheeks. It was painful to know it was a burden that he lived with every day. Thankfully, he had said he didn’t remember much before Mama Yansa had taken him in. I sincerely hoped that was the case.
“How do you know all of this?”
It was impressive that she knew so much of his story from before she met him, but if she had known what was going on, why didn’t she help the girl or stop it? Suspicions began to creep in. She was a Loa too. I began to worry that she was just like the rest of them and I’d misplaced my trust yet again.
“She told me. She’d met a guy who treated her better than most before him. That didn’t last long though. He tricked her and began to invite his friends over. One thing led to another and she found herself strung out and stuck in a bad situation. Rhys was there with her, locked up in a closet when his mother had guests. Wasn’t no way for a child to be livin’.”
Her accent grew thicker; the story was making her a tad bit emotional and with good reason. I couldn’t imagine witnessing the atrocities of humanity firsthand. The supernatural was different. Some were bad right from creation, but not people. They rot in to an evil mess over time and that to me, is far worse than any demon or vampire.
“So, if you knew his mother, then why is he with you and not her?”
I felt like I was picking at a scab on her heart. Mama sat there contemplating her words.
“I asked her to hand him over to me. Promised her I’d give him a good life and raise him to be a good man. She did a very selfless thing by agreeing. Her only request was that he not remember how things had been before.”
Understanding dawned, and I wondered how much of the story Rhys himself actually knew or if I was the first person hearing it.
“Whatever happened to her? His biological mother?” I asked, wondering if she was still out there somewhere and if she had ever gotten out and made herself a better life.
“She died about a year after he came to live with me. She finally got up da courage to leave and was holed up in a hotel outside of town. Da maids found her after no one had seen her for a few days wit’ da needle still sticking out of her arm. Da police ruled it an unintentional overdose, but I know better. He found her and finished her off. Poor thin’.”
“Damn, that’s horrible!” I didn’t have the heart to ask if Rhys knew about what had happened to his mom. If he did, I had no doubts he would tell me in his own good time. Getting information out of the man was like pulling teeth.
Mama nodded in agreement.
The unnamed woman had a short and sad life, failed by everyone. She’d done the hardest and bravest thing she could by giving Rhys a chance at a real life, free from neglect and abuse. There’s no telling where he would’ve ended up if she hadn’t agreed to his going away.
I trusted that she had her reasons for not doing more to save the woman. My trust was something she’d earned over the relatively short period since I’d met her. Mama was many things, yet cold hearted or indifferent to the pain and suffering of another wasn’t one of them.
While the two of us were alone, I figured it was the perfect time to bring up what Marie had said to me at the wedding. She’d told me to find Mama Yansa and that she’d have answers. The problem came when I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to be asking?
“Umm, can I ask you something?” I was hesitant to ask what Marie wanted me to know. She had asked that once I understood everything, that I’d consider forgiving her. That didn’t bode well.
“Mhmm, what ya be thinking about?” she asked as she lifted a spoonful of turtle soup to her lips for a taste test.
I glanced at the doorway searching for any sign of the boys returning from their top secret chat, but they weren’t visible from where I was standing near the door. Hugging my arms around my torso, I worked up the courage. Mama waited patiently for me to spit out what was rolling around in my head and I was thankful for the small mercy.
“I saw Marie when I was in Guinee. She said that I needed to find you…that you’d have answers for me. Can you tell me anything about what she might have meant? Like what she might have wanted me to know?” I rubbed at my arms as if I were cold. It was a futile attempt to make myself a little more comfortable.
The conversation had me a little on edge. At any second, it could take a turn for the worse. I didn’t know if Mama knew about my marriage to the Baron and I sure as hell didn’t want Rhys to know anything about it. The way I looked at it was that it was a temporary situation and not all that big a deal because it meant nothing to me. He had been involved in my parents’ murder and personally assuring that my life went to shit thanks to Drake and Brad. I hated him.
“Marie was a good woman, a strong leader, and she had one hell of a sharp mind. She was a woman who spoke what she thought and stood up for what was right, even when it hurt her. Ya should know that about her before ya hear da rest of da story.”
What she was saying didn’t mesh well with the vision I’d had of Marie making her underhanded deal with the Baron in exchange for a magical blessing of sorts. In fact, she seemed incredibly selfish. She had traded me for more power and that wasn’t okay with me. It meant that I would never have any control over my own life or where I’d end up.
“She promised me to a man who wanted nothing more than to use me for his own gains. I don’t understand how you can defend that.” My voice was clipped and grew louder with each word.
“There’s so much more than ya know. Did ya know that I been watchin’ over your family since before Marie had her babies? She made me promise her that I’d watch over ya and keep ya safe until da time came that da Baron would come for ya.”
She’d been watching over me and my family for years? Instead of keeping me safe, it sounded a hell of a lot like it was more along the lines of safe keeping, specifically for the Baron.
“What was the plan? You just deliver me right to him once I reached adulthood or something?” It was an outrage, the whole damn thing.
“It’s not like that and ya best listen up b’fore ya get flippant with me.”
Despite the warning, I had no interest in listening to another word she had to say on the subject. The betrayal stung like a deep papercut.
She swung the pot out from over the fire and hefted it on to her table.
<
br /> “Ya were never goin’ to be normal. It was prophesized hundreds of years before ya were born that ya’d come to take back da reins, and bring real power back, and decide da fate of da people. Ya are more special than ya believe. It’s in ya blood. Ya are not a Glapion like ya might be thinking. Marie da second wasn’t his child like da other nine was.”
I knew there was a prophecy about me so it wasn’t that surprising, but Marie having an affair that produced a child? Mind blown. I sat there silently, not knowing what to think. I was processing what I’d been told. When I found my voice again, I spoke up.
“I don’t quite understand. What is the relevance of telling me I’m the product of an affair from almost two hundred years ago? How does that pertain to anything going on now?” I demanded.
Mama was finally scooping up bowls of the steaming turtle soup. My mouth watered of its own accord, even when the wheels in my head were turning trying to figure out what the old woman was playing at. I felt like my life had become a jigsaw puzzle, though it would be one of those really annoying and difficult ones that are all one color. The pieces all fit together somehow, but it was nearly impossible to see how they were all connected.
“Ya have da strongest bloodline ever seen before. Ya grandfather took steps to ensure that. Ya were made to fight this battle and to lead da light magic people back to their former glory.”
“And how am I supposed to do all of that? I don’t even know who the mystery man is. Can you even tell me? Who was my grandfather if it wasn’t Marie’s husband?”
Instead of getting angry back at me for practically jumping down her throat, she sighed and set a bowl in front of me. Reaching out, she squeezed my shoulder in a reassuring manner.
“I can and I can tell you that he is very proud of you and the woman you have become. He trusts that you’ll do the right thing.”
I scooped up a spoonful of soup and paused halfway through my first bite.
“What do you mean by he is? That’s present tense. Are you trying to tell me that he’s still around and kicking?” I placed my spoon back in my bowl and blocked out any possible distractions.
A Soul's Surrender (The Voodoo Revival Series Book 2) Page 23
