When his eyelids drooped, she knew he was in her power.
“Emile,” she used his true name to strengthen her control over him. “Emile, do you have another lover, perhaps a voodoo queen named Marie LeVeque?”
He rolled away from her and lay with his back on the bed shaking. His eyes rolled back in their sockets and saliva leaked out of his mouth in white bubbles.
“Speak to me, Emile. Tell me of Marie LeVeque.”
The big man arched his back, drummed his heels and moaned horribly. “Nooo, she kill me for sure.”
Fenix climbed onto his chest and squatted there staring at his contorted features. She created a ball of fire in her hands and held it in front of Emile’s horrified eyes. “If you don’t tell me, I shall burn you alive.” She paused for a moment while she passed the flaming ball from one hand to the other. “No, on second thought, I will just burn your face. The pain will drive you insane. Your eyes will fry in their sockets. Your skin will peel off the bones. Your lips and nose will burn away, but I won’t allow you to die. Your scars will terrify small children. No one will ever love you again.”
He began to sob loudly. “No, please don’t do that. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, anything.”
When his sobs subsided enough for him to speak, Fenix tossed the fireball into the air and it disappeared.
He watched it fly high and disappear with wide terrified eyes. “You a terrible witch, that’s what you be, a succubus straight from the Devil hisself.”
She laughed. “I’m no succubus, Emile, just a woman with a strong desire to survive. Tell me about Marie, Emile. Does she possess the Coeur de Flamme? Does she have the emerald?”
He stopped weeping. “The big green stone?”
“Yes, Emile, the green stone.”
He nodded. “She got it but she keep it on a chain around her neck. You never get it off her. She talks to da ting. She say, stone, tell me who wants to kill me. Stone, tell me where I can find lots of money. Stone, am I pretty?”
“Does it answer?”
He shook his head. “I never heared nothing, but she say she can.”
“Does she ever take the stone off? For instance, when she bathes,” Fenix leaned close to his face and whispered. “Or when she makes love?”
He started sobbing and crying again. “Don’t make me. I cain’t steal it. She’ll know. The stone will tell her and she’ll turn me into a zombie. She can do that. I seen it with my own eyes.”
She slapped his face hard and created a tiny fire ball which she drew slowly across his nose. He screamed like a terrified woman, high and long, when it burned a trail across his face. “Yes, you can, Emile. That is unless you wish to burn alive. I can make you burn a very long time. I can keep you alive indefinitely while you suffer. When does she take it off?”
“She don’t like to wear it when I be a humping her. She say it listens.”
“Perfect. Next time you lie with Marie, take the stone and bring it to me. I need it, Emile. I need it to continue living.” She clapped her hands three times and his eyes focused. “What happened? My face! It burns!”
“Shhh, nothing happened my darling, nothing. It was only a bad dream.” She began kissing his face where she’d burned it. A tear fell out of one of her golden eyes. She rubbed it across the burns and they healed.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“I’m very old, Emile, and I need your strength inside me right now.”
She stroked his cock. When she touched it, it doubled in size. He tried to rise and she pushed him back. “No need to get up. I’ll take what I want.”
She impaled herself on his huge rod, pushing it slowly into her, feeling every inch. “You may touch my breasts,” she moaned. He stroked her thrusting breasts and brushed his hands across her long, hard nipples. “Yes, yes,” she groaned as she worked herself up and down on his cock faster and faster.
Emile was unable to talk. His face was contorted with excitement and need, his back arched, his legs stiff as she pleasured herself. She held his cock in one hand and rubbed the hard tip across her most sensitive spot rapidly which caused him to freeze with his eyes tightly closed, cry out and grow even stiffer. When she climaxed, she knew he had not. When she rolled off, he tried to mount her and she shoved him away. “You must earn your pleasure. Go satisfy yourself on your lover LeVeque and bring me that stone.”
* * * *
When Quinn and Tomlinson got back to their home in the Garden District, a message was awaiting him from Bryn. Quinn broke the wax seal and read it quickly.
“What’s wrong?” Tomlinson could read him like a book.
“Fenix is missing. Devil take her. That female is a constant source of irritation.”
“She could be anywhere,” Tomlinson said as he removed his driving coat.
“I know that, but Bryn seems to think I can help find her which I seriously doubt.”
“Too bad we had the curricle pulled around already.”
“No matter, I’d rather ride.”
Quinn left the house and walked briskly to the mews where he found his groom, Jason, rubbing oil into his stirrup leathers. “Saddle Cloud, Jason, if you please.” Quinn asked.
Jason laid the leathers down and leaped to his feet. “You look to be in high dudgeon, if you don’t mind me a sayin’ so.”
Quinn smiled. “I don’t mind at all. What makes you think I’m in, uh, a black mood?”
“Cause you got that look on your face, Master Quinn. Something be troublin’ you.”
“There have been two murders in this town very similar to the ones we were dealing with in Soho.” Quinn lit a thin black cigar and inhaled deeply.
“Ahhh,” his groom said. “The rosary killer.”
Quinn nodded. “I tried to convince the local constabulary of the similarities and they failed to see the significance.”
“Think this killer done followed you here, sir?”
Quinn watched as Jason pulled the gray gelding out of its stall and saddled it. “No, I think he followed Miss Sahir and her entourage here. One of those ladies is now missing.”
“Bless me, Sir, do you think the rosary killer got her?”
Quinn smiled. “No, this woman should be well able to take care of herself. I’m merely going to aid the other sister and to provide, uh, comfort if I can.”
Jason grinned widely as he held the gray while Quinn launched himself into the saddle. The gray fidgeted and danced for a moment and then settled under Quinn’s hands. When Jason handed Quinn his bowler hat and his cane, he offered advice. “Have a care to yourself, sir. Them two sisters be a little hot under saddle and hard to manage.”
Quinn nodded. “Which is exactly none of your business, but I’ll do that.” As he trotted down the drive, turned onto St. Charles and headed toward the French Quarter, his mind pondered what Jason had said about the killer going after Fenix. He’d have to warn Bryn to take better care of her sister with that maniac in town. Fenix was well able to take care of herself, but one never knew and it wouldn’t hurt to give her a warning.
When he arrived at the jewelry store, he decided to walk inside and look at the wares for a moment. The clerk, an elegant little man in a black suit under which he wore a white shirt with frills, stepped out from behind the counter. “May I be of assistance, sir?” he asked, as he tugged the ruffles of his shirt down over his hands.
A tall thin woman with a gray bun and angular features, wearing a puce dress with an immense bustle, swept into the shop after him. “No, I’m just here to see Miss Bryn. Please help this lovely lady.” He swept off his hat and bowed.
She tittered. “Why thank you, good sir.”
The clerk’s name was Jessamy Bridges. He stepped around Quinn. “You may go up, sir. I believe she is expecting you.”
“Thank you, Bridges.”
Quinn walked through the store to a door in the rear swinging his Malacca cane. He took a narrow flight of stairs up to the living quarters where Bryn met him dress
ed in a black working dress with a leather apron over it. She held out her hands to him and he took them in his. “Quinn, I am so glad to see you.”
“What puts you in this strange mood?” he asked with a smile. “You are so rarely glad to see me.”
“That is not true. You just have a way of getting under my skin.”
He bent down and kissed her under her ear as he whispered. “I’d so like to get under that dress.”
“Now is not the time for dalliance. Behave yourself.” Bryn had to fight her attraction to this man constantly. Even as she allowed his kiss and a surreptitious caress of her left breast before pushing him away, the parlor door opened and Fingle walked in. “Miss Fenix has arrived, Madam.”
Bryn gasped as Fenix swept into the room. “Where have you been?”
“Darling, Bryn, I told you I went to the library.”
“Don’t try to bamboozle me. You’ve been gone five hours. Where were you?”
“Do you really think here, in front of a guest . . . and Fingle, whatever he is, is the place to discuss family matters?”
“Quinn is aware of all our secrets. Please feel free to enlighten us as to where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to.”
Fenix removed her bonnet and tossed it onto a chair. Her hair was no longer contained in a coronet of braids but loosely gathered into a bun at the nape of her neck. Bryn knew she’d been making love to someone. Her face was pink and fresh and positively glowed.
“I’ve been searching for an easier way to obtain the Coeur de Flamme and have found it.”
Bryn groaned. “You shouldn’t be taking such chances in your weakened state.”
“Fudge! I get a little tired but I’m perfectly capable. I have enlisted Marie LeVeque’s lover in our cause. He has promised to bring me the stone. He’s actually seen it. She wears it on a chain around her neck. You would have had to kill her to obtain it.”
“I was prepared to do what was necessary,” Bryn snarled. “And I would have the stone now if Quinn had not stopped me.” She glared at him, fury over being foiled rising in her breast like the tides.
Quinn had the grace to look embarrassed. “I did not know the true cause,” he explained. “Now that I am aware of the need, I am prepared to help rectify my error in any way I can.”
Bryn rolled her eyes. “And so you shall. You have a lot of rectifying to do.”
He bent and pressed his lips close to her ear. “I’d like to rectify a little right now.”
She slapped his hand and he moved away with a sheepish grin on his handsome face. Bryn turned her ire on her sister. “There was no need for you to put yourself at risk, Fenix. I will get the stone. Don’t I always do what I say I will?”
Fenix laughed. “Surely, dear sister, you do. Please do not be angry with me. I felt there was need and I wish to be a part of your plans.” She grabbed Bryn’s hands and squeezed them. “Can you not understand, dear sister, how I feel? You, I believe, of all people should. I could no longer sit idly by and watch you putting yourself in jeopardy for me. I had to act.”
Tears sprang into Bryn’s eyes. “Of course I understand, but I worry so. Go upstairs and lay down on your bed until dinner. You must rest.”
Fenix kissed her cheek. “I knew you would feel as I do. We are so close. How could you not?”
Bryn nodded, too overcome to trust her voice. Fenix kissed her cheek again and swept up the stairs, her gown rustling as she went.
When Fenix was gone, Quinn laughed. “What a little minx.”
“She is so young, you see. She doesn’t understand.”
“Nonsense! She’s almost thirty. You baby her, Bryn. Give her some room occasionally and she might not kick up such a dust when she breaks loose.”
Bryn nodded. “You could be right, but I’ve been caring for her for centuries. It’s hard to let her out of my sight when she’s so close to the end.”
Quinn took her in his arms. “Now that Fenix has returned to the nest, we can go up to your room and recall all of the things we left undone last night.”
Bryn allowed his embrace for a moment. His arms felt good around her. She rarely allowed herself the freedom to relax and let someone else carry her burdens. But sex was strictly out. “No, Quinn, it’s too dangerous. Without Sam there, you would be in extreme danger.”
He nuzzled her neck and she felt her resolve weakening. If they didn’t join, perhaps they could find pleasure some other way. She took his hand and led him up the stairs. “You must do exactly as I say, no more. Do not push me to complete the act your way. You will die.”
“But I would die happy.”
“It’s no joke,” she said, as she led Quinn into her room and he slammed the door behind him. His cock was straining the buttons of his trousers. It ached with a desperate need. He longed to shove her onto her bed and pound into her, but in the back of his mind, her warning had taken root. He wasn’t afraid exactly, more like cautious.
When she pushed him onto the bed, he lay there wondering what she had in mind. It didn’t take long to find out. She pulled up her dress and slipped out of her pantalettes. The sight of her smooth mound excited him to the point of ejaculating. When she began stroking herself and teasing her pink sex, he caught on, opened his pants and took his cock into his hand.
She pulled her breasts out of the top of her bodice and caressed them as he stroked himself. Looking at her rubbing turgid nipples and swollen white breasts made him groan with desire, but he stayed on the bed. He was afraid if he tried to touch her, this wet dream would end.
She moved from her breasts to her mound and back again. When she parted the glowing lips of her sex and showed him the pink heart, he almost climaxed. He stopped stroking and took a bunch of deep breaths. The head of his cock was throbbing and a tiny drop of semen had leaked out the opening. Bryn stopped playing with herself and bent over to thrust her tongue in that small hole.
“Not fair!” He gasped. “You don’t touch me and I don’t touch you.”
She smiled tightly. “I make the rules and you definitely don’t touch me.”
She went back to pleasuring herself. Her fingers danced in and out of her sex. Quinn’s breath quickened as he saw moisture leaking out and down her smooth white thighs. When she began panting rhythmically, he allowed the huge load of semen building in his burning crotch to rise. When she froze and gasped with completion, he shot off so hard the wad hit the canopy of the bed and hung there.
Bryn fell on the bed next to him laughing. “You’ll have to clean that off my canopy before it falls.”
“Sorry, I can’t move right now. That’s the biggest load I ever released. I’m drained.”
“Remember this feeling. It has to keep you for a while.”
He rolled over and stroked her cheek with one finger. “You are a hard woman to love.” That’s what he said but he was thinking he had fallen hard and would love her until he died.
Chapter 9
Priest huddled in a dark alley away from the prying eyes of the pitiful humans walking down Bourbon Street. His post was across from Abraxas, the jewelry store belonging to Bryn. Sure of his safety in the dark recess, he closed his eyes and looked through the eyes of his minions, the two snakes he’d inserted. He instantly cursed them. They were useless. They lay under a blanket on Bryn’s big bed watching the tall detective from Scotland Yard.
Priest knew Bryn was there, no doubt doing something provocative or even perverted Priest longed to see, but for some reason all their attention was on the detective who lay on his back jacking off. Priest knew Bryn was probably dancing naked for him, or performing other interesting and exciting perversions for Quinn’s delectation, possibly with Samantha, but the stupid snakes only watched him. He groaned with frustration and tried to order them to turn their attentions away from the man. They were male snakes. They shouldn’t be so fascinated with cocks. But all of his power could not make them turn away. They swayed to the movement of the man’s rhythmical stroking. Snakes!
Unable to convince them to watch what he wanted, he instead ordered them to come to him. They were useless here. So far they’d seen nothing. He would insert them into the home of the voodoo priestess Marie LeVeque. He now knew the stone was there. They could watch her for him, maybe discover where she kept it, and then he could steal it.
The snakes emerged from the storm drain. He held his arms out and they crawled up his sleeves and disappeared. The Maison de Ville was close so he walked the short distance. When he emerged from an alley onto Bourbon Street, he stopped for a moment to observe the pedestrian traffic, and then walked to the front of the hotel. A wrought-iron gate to the back was unlocked. It led to the courtyard behind the lobby. He took it and brushed through tall shrubbery and tropical foliage to the fountain. From this point he could see the old carriage house. It was late in the day. Lights flickered inside the lobby but the carriage house apartment was dark. He stepped under the balcony and held his arms out. The snakes slithered out of his capacious sleeves and up the wrought-iron posts supporting the black railing. The French doors on the balcony were ajar so he urged them inside, found a bench under a clump of tall bird of paradise and closed his eyes.
The snakes seemed to be strangely attracted to sexual activity. They moved through the rooms to the bed chamber which was lit by one huge black candle. There, they found Marie LeVeque in the act of sexual congress with a huge Negro man. Her legs were widely spread. She grunted when he pushed his cock in and wailed when he drew it out.
The snakes concentrated on the man’s swinging testicles. They watched as he thrust. His buttocks clenched and the testicles disappeared. When he pulled out, he rose onto his knees and his testicles swung wildly. One of the snakes slithered across the floor and up the bedpost to the head of the bed. They completely ignored beautiful Marie. Instead, they focused on the unknown man’s sculpted face, his sweating neck, his broad powerful chest and his cock. Priest was disgusted. It was only a happy coincidence that the cock was going into Marie. He clutched himself when one of the snakes gazed in rapt fascination at her opening, wet and swollen from the man’s vigorous attentions, and the gigantic cock entering it.
The Flight of the Zeppelin Page 6
