Pirate's Curse: Division 1: The Berkano Vampire Collection

by Leigh Anderson

  Heading in the direction she thought would lead her around the village, she soon realized the village was much larger than she expected. It was practically a town. There were cobblestone streets and large buildings—nothing like the thatched houses near the shore. How did such a place exist, and thrive, for so long without the vampires or witches finding them?

  For now, she couldn’t puzzle that out. She needed to find her way through and escape.

  As she slipped from shadow to shadow, she estimated she was about halfway through the town when she heard, “There’s one!”

  She looked up and saw that two of the pirates had spotted her and were headed straight for her. Shit! In a rush, she ran into the nearest building, entering so quickly that she forgot to close the door behind her. As she looked back, though, the door closed on its own. Her eyes widened, but she kept running.

  What was happening? She didn’t have time to guess. The pirates had already busted through the door and were continuing giving chase.

  Ahead of her, another door opened. She ran through, and it shut behind her. Then another door opened, and it led outside. After she exited, the door shut again.

  “Where’s she at?” she heard.

  “Wasn’t that the cap’s woman?” the other asked. They were still coming after her.

  Across a small path, another door opened, and she ran through. Everywhere she turned, doors opened and closed of their own accord. She didn’t know where they were leading her, but she had the feeling they were helping her escape.

  Finally, she entered a room, but no other doors opened. She stood quiet and listened…but she didn’t hear anything. She must have lost the pirates. But she couldn’t stay here long. She needed to get to the boats. There were other doors to the room, but each one she tried was locked.

  Why was I led here?

  She looked around, and as her eyes adjusted, she realized she was in a library. The round room had ceilings at least ten feet high, and the wall was simply shelves of books. More books than she could even count.

  While Catheryn could read, she never had much time for it as a slave. As much as she could recall, she’d never read a book for pleasure.

  She continued walking around the room, trying the doors that occasionally broke up the shelves, when one book caught her eye. Why this one book out of the thousands drew her gaze, she had no idea, but she reached out and ran her fingers along the binding. She pulled the book down from its place on the shelf and looked at the cover.

  The Power of Hoodoo it read.

  “No way.”

  Maybe this book could help give her answers about what was happening.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, but she had no idea to whom. She put the book in her satchel and tried the next door. It opened right away. “Curiouser and curiouser,” she mumbled.

  As she exited the library, she realized she was on the edge of the town. She could see the bay in the distance. Excited, she ran for it. Her heart pumped in her chest. She was so close to freedom. To answers. Everything was going to be okay!

  As she neared the boats, she suddenly ran smack into something. She fell backward and landed on her backside.

  “Just where do you think you’re going?” a voice asked her.

  She looked up, and her eyes met Captain Rainier’s.

  Chapter 8

  There were so many humans. More in one place than Captain Rainier had seen in…months? Years? It was amazing, human’s tenacity for survival. No matter what they faced, be it natural disasters, supernatural curses, or the arrival of a far superior hunter, humans survived.

  Rainier ordered his men to surround the village and pick off the outliers first, any guards or people foolish enough to be out so late at night. Then they snuck into the village itself. It wasn’t long before they were spotted and someone raised the alarm. This did more to aid the vampires though than protect the humans. Out of fear, valor, or curiosity, many humans came out of the safety of their homes, allowing themselves to be picked off, to either be carried away for food or to be used as bait to draw out more humans.

  In addition to human booty, the vampires also collected valuables and foodstuffs. Some of the vampires were so quick about their work, they were able to return to the lifeboats, take their prizes back to the ship, and then return to the shore for another run.

  Rainier, even though he would have loved to have been part of the action, stayed near the lifeboats to direct his men and let them have their fun. He knew that some of the men were jealous that he had his own blood slave, so he wanted make sure the men enjoyed their time plundering the village. There would certainly be enough slaves collected to feed his men for months after this. That would go a long way toward boosting morale.

  “Captain!” one of the men shouted as he ran toward him. It was Mathis, the first mate. “I saw her, sir,” he said.

  “Saw who?” Rainier asked.

  “Your slave girl, Catheryn.”

  “What? Here? Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure, captain,” he said. “She was wearing the same clothes and had the same hair.”

  Rainier wondered just how Mathis knew what Catheryn had been wearing good enough to recognize in a fleeting moment in the dark of night, but he let the question linger for now.

  “Where did she go?” he asked. “Why didn’t you catch her?”

  “That girl…” Mathis said, his voice ominous. “She’s a witch, I tell you. She ran away quick like, but then she ran into a building, but she didn’t open the door herself. One by one, the doors opened and closed on their own.”

  Rainier squinted his eyebrows. “You are sure she wasn’t just opening them quickly? Or that someone else opened them, someone you couldn’t see?”

  “I’m certain she was alone, sir,” he said. “What I saw…it weren’t natural.”

  “Where is she now?” Rainier asked.

  “I’m sorry to say I lost track of her, sir,” he said. “But she was running through the village, from the far side to this way. She’s probably thinking she can steal one of these here boats and make her escape.”

  Rainier nodded. “That makes sense,” he said. “Good job warning me so I can be on the lookout. Now, get back to gathering that booty!”

  “One more thing, sir,” Mathis said. “Pardon if it’s not my place. But if she’s a witch, and she has been your personal blood slave…Have you been feeling all right, sir?”

  “Right as rain,” Rainier lied. Of course he has felt odd since he started feeding on Catheryn. But he couldn’t let his men know that. He couldn’t show any sign of weakness. “I’m sure she just…has a few tricks up her sleeve. You know how wily women are.”

  Mathis gave a lascivious laugh. “Don’t I ever,” he said in a way that even made Rainier’s skin crawl.

  “Back to work!” Rainier ordered.

  “Aye-aye, sir!” Mathis said as he headed back toward the village.

  Rainier shook his head as he thought about Catheryn. Damn that girl! Didn’t she know how dangerous it could be out here without him as a protector? What if one of the other vampires caught her and didn’t recognize her as his? She could be killed.

  What if she was a witch, though? In that case, she could protect herself. But if she was, then why did she allow Rainier to take her captive, to feed off her? Why didn’t the Hoodoo Queen protect her?

  She couldn’t actually be a witch…could she? Either way, she would certainly have a lot to answer for when he next saw her. Where was she anyway? Maybe he should go into the village and look for her…

  As he debated what to do, he saw her. She was on the edge of the village, peeking toward the boats. Rainier had wandered away, pacing as he pondered what Mathis had told him, so she probably didn’t see him. He let her make a break for it. She looked adorable as she pumped her arms, her black tresses bouncing behind her, trying so hard to make it to a boat unseen.

  Foolish girl.

  Just as she was about at the boats, Rainier used his preternatu
ral speed to block her path. She ran into him with a thud and fell onto her backside.

  “Just where do you think you’re going?” he asked her.

  She gasped. “C-C-Captain Rainier!”

  “Obviously,” he said. “Did you think you could get away from me so easily? And why would you want to get away? Have I not taken care of you? Fed you? Protected you? Even let you sleep in my own bed?”

  She inched away from him as though afraid. But why? He had not been unkind to her.

  “Where would you go? What would you do?” he asked even though she still had not answered his previous questions.

  Still, she did not answer, but only backed farther away.

  “What is wrong?” he asked. “Why won’t you answer me?”

  “Because you do not want to hear the truth,” she said.

  “What truth?” he asked. “That I saved you from slavery to the Hoodoo Queen? That I protected you from being drained by my starving crew? How could you be so ungrateful?”

  Catheryn stood and faced Rainier. “You expect me to be grateful?” she asked. “For what? For being your dinner? For being threatened with chains if I displease you? For having to live my life in fear? Of pirates, of raiders, of you?”

  Her words cut him deeply. She was afraid of him? But…why? And why should he care? She should fear him. She should only be food. She should be chained like the slave she was. Damnit! Why was he feeling sympathy for this troublesome girl?

  “I have been good to you, Catheryn, in only the ways I know how,” he said. “I am sorry if they are not the ways you are accustomed to or the ways you would like, but that is how it is. I am a vampire and you…well, I was going to say that you are a human, but that’s not exactly true, is it?”

  At that, her eyes widened, her fear returning. She turned and took flight once again.

  “Catheryn!” he bellowed as he groaned and took off after her.

  She was quick, but he was quicker. As she made her way back into the village, he saw what Mathis had described earlier. The doors ahead of her opened at will, and once she was safely through it, the door slammed shut. He couldn’t tell if she was causing it, though, or if there was some other unseen force at play.

  He burst through the first door, following her. He ducked as a vase flew toward him. He then had to dodge a book and a candlestick before Catheryn fled through another door. At the next building, though, he did not follow her through. He ran around the other side and was waiting as she exited. She practically ran into his arms. She struggled, kicked, and screamed, but he did not let her go.

  “Calm yourself, Catheryn,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “You’re just going to take me back to your ship and feed on me,” she said.

  “I…” He sighed. “What else am I to do?” he asked. “Tell me, and I will do it. How will I survive if I do not feed on human blood?”

  That gave her pause. Of course, she did not have an answer for him. Vampires had been trying to find an answer to that question for as long as they had existed and had not found a way around this problem. Many had tried to find a workaround. Some people had even tried to “cure” vampirism, as though it was some sort of disease. That was what had led to the great Rift in the first place. A vampire and a witch were trying to find a vampire cure and had fallen in love, their union shattering the entire world.

  Most vampires, though, Rainier included, did not view vampirism as a disease to be cured. It was simply a new state of being that others would have to find a way to exist around.

  “I suppose…if you must feed on someone,” Catheryn said slowly, “it may as well be me.”

  He felt her tension in his arms melt away, and he loosened his grip. “That’s more like it,” he said. “So, uneasy truce, then?”

  She nodded. “Uneasy truce.”

  He let her go and motioned back toward the lifeboats. She led the way back, but it appeared she was in no rush to return. He did not hurry her.

  When they arrived back at the boats, most of them were full of pirates and their booty, both living and inanimate.

  Mathis walked over to Rainier. “I see you found her, sir.”

  “Indeed I did,” he said. “Has everyone returned?”

  “Aye, sir,” he said. “I think this should be our last haul. The humans are regrouping now and could fight back more effectively if we tried to attack again. But we have forty-seven humans at my last count, plus Miss Catheryn. Not to mention the rest of the booty. I think we should head back.”

  Rainier nodded. “Agreed. I’ll take the last boat myself, along with Miss Catheryn.”

  “Aye, sir,” Mathis said as he finished helping the other pirates load the boats, then they shoved off.

  Rainier helped Catheryn into the last boat and then jumped in beside her. He rowed leisurely, taking in the night air. The moon was high and reflected off the ocean. The water lapped against the shore. There was the faint cry of wailing in the distance as people mourned the dead and the stolen. It was a magical evening.

  He noticed Catheryn shudder a bit and pull her shawl around her shoulders.

  “Are you cold?” he asked.

  “Not particularly,” she said. “Just…wondering what my life will be like now that I have resigned myself to being your…what was it? Bloodbag, I think one of your men called it.”

  He shrugged. “Vulgar term,” he said. “It dehumanizes those we must feed upon. I realize some people find it easier to view humans that way. I mean, would you be able to eat chickens if they talked as you do? But still. There should be more honor in it than that.”

  Catheryn scoffed but didn’t say anything.

  “What?” he asked. “You think there can be no honor in staying alive?”

  “I said nothing,” she said. “This whole situation is far more complicated than I ever imagined.”

  “It is always easy for humans to think we are just a mindless evil when they have never had a conversation with us. Never considered that what we do is simply for survival. Same as they do.”

  “But you must understand their fear when you raid their village, steal their loved ones, and suck them dry and toss them into the sea,” Catheryn said evenly, without malice, as though just stating the facts.

  “I admit we have not come up with an…ideal way to coexist,” he said.

  “Would you change your ways?” she asked. “If someone found a way for you and humans to coexist in harmony?”

  He did love being a vampire. The long life, superhuman strength, and bursts of speed. The feeling of being more powerful than any other living thing on earth. The freedom to roam the land and sea as he desired.

  But what Catheryn had said earlier about the vampiric need for blood not being sustainable was true. He couldn’t live without humans. They needed to find a way to coexist. Not just exist, but thrive. The world, or the division of NOLA at least, was dying. The waters were rising, crops were getting harder to grow, and the vampire numbers were dwindling. It was getting harder and harder to create vampires by turning a human. He could barely remember the last time it had happened successfully.

  Finally, he nodded. “I would,” he said. “We need to find a better way to exist.”

  “I might hold you to that,” she said.

  “Are you going to create this new world for me?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “I just might,” she said. “At least trying would give me something to fill my days while I am trapped in your quarters.”

  He smirked, raising one of his eyebrows. “Along with improving your magic?”

  She blanched.

  “I saw what was happening with the doors,” he said. “The way they opened and closed on their own. Why have you been lying to me? Are you a witch or not?”

  Catheryn sighed. “I don’t know what I am. I never had powers growing up. They’ve only been manifesting recently. And only very small things anyway. I guess I could have had an ancestor who was a witch, so I could have a bit of witch
blood in me. But my parents died when I was young. I don’t even remember them. I was living on the street. Starving. Hiding in fear. I finally sold myself into slavery for…for just a bite to eat. Why would a witch be a slave? If I could have used powers to find another way, I would have. If I could have found a coven to take me in and train me, I would have.

  “I have been suspecting for a while that I might be a lesser witch. Someone with latent magical powers that are of nearly no account. But I was already a slave in the Hoodoo House when I started noticing them. If the Hoodoo Queen had found out I was a witch, even a lesser one, and I didn’t have a coven of my own to protect me…” She stopped and shuddered again.

  Rainier nodded. “Things tend to only happen when you are threatened,” he said. “Like the doors when you were chased or the beam when you were cornered.”

  “Yes,” she said. “I noticed that as well. Which is why I think the powers are only latent. I cannot control them, but they take on a life of their own to protect me.”

  “Yet they allowed you to be captured by me,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “Perhaps your powers knew I was not a threat to you.”

  “Or they just weren’t quite strong enough yet to fight you off, but it’s only a matter of time,” she said with a teasing smirk.

  “Well, we will have to see what other surprises you have in store for me, Catheryn Beauregard,” he said.

  He smiled as they rowed back to the ship. He wanted to believe what she had told him. He didn’t have a reason not to believe her, except that she hadn’t been completely honest with him before. More like lying by omission. But she didn’t trust him before. Why should she? At least now they seemed to have turned a corner.

  But the truth of what she was still gnawed at him. It should be safe for him to feed off a lesser witch. They were usually close enough to human that there should be no side effects from feeding off one. Yet every time he fed from Catheryn, he had those strange visions. And he wasn’t feeling energized the way he should afterward.