“They lived here on the island, but eventually they set out for other islands so they could spread hoodoo magic to the New World. They founded that other village you ransacked. That’s why it was protected from pirates for so long.”
“But why did the protection fail?” Rainier asked. “Why were we able to find that village now?”
“The pure-blood witches eventually died out,” she said. “Maybe the protections the witches had placed over the village eventually faded away.”
“Or maybe they faltered because you were meant to find that book,” Rainier said.
Catheryn shrugged. “Maybe. But somehow, my parents found their way to NOLA. They were the last pure-blood hoodoo witch couple. They died of typhoid fever. I guess their bloodline passed to me.”
“So, you are the last pure-blood hoodoo witch?” Rainier asked.
“It’s possible,” Catheryn said. “But I had…have a sister. Eva.”
“The one you sold yourself into slavery to protect,” Rainier said.
“Yes,” Catheryn confirmed. “That means there’s at least two of us. I don’t remember her having any hoodoo powers, but if mine manifested late, maybe hers did, too. I have to find her.”
“So the Hoodoo Queen of NOLA,” Rainier said, “she’s not a full-blood hoodoo witch like you?”
“I don’t think so,” Catheryn said. “She is a very powerful witch, but she is not full-blooded.”
“I had a vision, too,” he said. “I didn’t want tell you because I didn’t want to upset you. But I saw her rounding up all the humans. I think she is going to do something to them.”
“What?” Catheryn asked, her eyebrows tight.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “My vision was short, fleeting, after one of the times I fed from you. But I’m certain the humans are in danger. We could go back to NOLA. You could defeat her.”
Catheryn snorted. “Defeat her? Me? Are you daft? I can’t defeat the Hoodoo Queen.”
“But your powers have been growing by the day. By the time we get back to NOLA, your powers could be fully formed.”
“Or they might not be,” she said. “Or even if they were, I can’t control them.”
“You could train them,” he said. “Just like any fighting skill.”
Catheryn shook her head. “Why do you care so much?” she asked. “You don’t care about humans.”
“I cared about you when I thought you were one,” he said.
“Only because you needed a dinner,” she said. “Are you worried the queen is going to control your only source of food?”
“That’s not it,” he said. “I thought…I thought you would want to protect them. I was offering to help you.”
“And protect yourself,” Catheryn said. “Your way of life. You only want to defeat the Hoodoo Queen so you can control NOLA yourself.”
“The thought never even crossed my mind,” he said. “How can you think so little of me?”
“I can’t even escape from you!” Catheryn said. “How do you think I could possibly fight and win against the Hoodoo Queen?”
Rainier paused. “You…you want to escape from me?” he asked as though hurt.
“I’m your slave!” she said pointedly. “I’m not here of my own free will.”
“But you agreed to be my devotee,” he said.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she said. “If you weren’t feeding from me it would just be someone else you’d feed from. I was protecting the villagers.”
“I brought you here,” he said, motioning toward the ship. “I’m helping you find out who you are. Helping you find your powers, making you stronger. What else do I have to do to get you to trust me?”
“Set me free,” she said. “Grant me my freedom. Let me return to NOLA and find my sister.”
Rainier didn’t say anything.
Catheryn nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
“We better get back to the ship,” Rainier said in a defeated voice. They walked in silence back through the jungle along the path he had created for them earlier. They got in the lifeboat and rowed back to the ship.
When they arrived back at the ship, the crew had all returned. They looked exhausted and angry. Catheryn didn’t care about them, though. She simply returned to her…to Rainier’s quarters. She went to the desk and went back to reading her hoodoo book. She could feel the ship pull up anchor and gently rock as it made its way back out to sea.
A little while later, Rainier returned to the room. He looked sad and defeated, but Catheryn did not even greet him.
“The crew is angry,” he said. “They didn’t find the treasure, obviously. They feel like I deliberately misled them.”
“And they are right,” Catheryn said.
Rainier nodded. “I guess I’m not as clever as I thought,” he conceded. “They are curious why I would bring them here, send them on a wild goose chase, and then disappear into the forest with my…slave.”
Catheryn looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“They are grumbling against me,” he said.
Catheryn shrugged and went back to her book. “Not my problem.”
“Oh, yes it is,” he said. “You are my personal slave. The men have their eye on you. Without me to enforce the rations, how long do you think those poor souls below deck will last? How long do you think you will last?”
“Are you threatening me?” she asked, slowly standing.
“No,” he said. “I’m warning you. If you don’t learn to defend yourself, and something happens to me, you’re dead.”
Chapter 14
Rainier stood across from Catheryn, each with a staff in hand. It was the next morning, and Rainier had pushed all the furniture in the room against the walls and locked the door. The room was now large and open enough that Rainier could give Catheryn a basic sword-fighting lesson.
Catheryn looked disinterested, letting her staff dangle at her side. “This is stupid,” she said. “Why are we doing this? I’ll never learn enough to make a difference.”
“If you can’t control your magical powers,” Rainier explained, “you should learn to defend yourself the old-fashioned way. Who knows, maybe a good ol’ training session will teach you something about hard work and discipline and will help you train your hoodoo powers as well.”
“So I can help you take down the Hoodoo Queen?” Catheryn asked.
“You have no love for the woman,” he said. “Is my plan so terrible? Wouldn’t NOLA be better off without her?”
“It depends on who takes her place,” Catheryn said.
“Well, if you don’t think it should be me,” Rainier said as he raised his staff and started circling Catheryn, “maybe it should be you.”
Catheryn laughed.
Rainier tapped her stick with his own, getting her to raise it. “What’s so funny?”
“I was born in a slum, grew up a slave, and now live as a bloodbag for a vampire. How exactly am I supposed to defeat the most powerful witch in NOLA and become a queen myself?”
“Well, you’ll never accomplish anything with that attitude,” he said. “Now raise your sword.”
“It’s a stick,” she said, but raised it anyway.
“It is the only thing standing between you and certain death,” he said as he assumed a fighting stance. Catheryn mimicked him. Rainier moved to her side and helped correct her posture. “Curve your back like this,” he said, placing his hand along her spine. “And turn your hips like this.” He stood back and admired his work. “Beautiful.”
“Better hurry up,” she said. “This sword is heavy.”
“You will have to build up your strength. Now, swing right, then return to this position. No, remember your back. Again.”
It took a few tries, but soon, Catheryn was able to swing her sword and return to the correct first position with ease.
“Excellent,” Rainier said. “Now, try to advance. Take a step forward, but retain the original position. Very good.”
After
only training for a few minutes, Rainier realized that Catheryn was actually a very apt student, when she put her mind to it.
“I think we are ready for you start taking on your first opponent,” he said, stepping forward and raising his stick.
“Go easy on me,” she said.
“Never,” he replied.
He advanced toward her and swung, but she easily deflected his blow.
“Excellent!” he said, genuinely pleased.
Catheryn smiled, though the flush in her cheeks made him think she was actually embarrassed by his praise. She was likely also still upset with what had happened the previous night. Why didn’t he release her? He shook his head to clear his mind. When it came to swordplay, he needed to concentrate on the task at hand.
Catheryn was moving quite well, and gaining in her confidence. Before long, she was taking risks and advancing on him of her own accord. She was keeping him on his toes. He would have to show her what a master swordsman could do.
She advanced, slashing to the right and left. He feinted a retreat, but he quickly came up by her side and used his sword against hers to spin her around. To her surprise, she ended up wrapped in his arms and laughed.
“How did this happen?” she asked, looking up at him with a smile.
“I couldn’t let you get too cocky,” he said.
A silence passed between them. It felt good, holding her in his arms, and she didn’t seem to be in a hurry to remove herself, but there was an awkwardness as well. She was still hurt and angry that she was his slave, and he was hurt that she didn’t trust him. But neither of those issues could be resolved right now, so Rainier finally released her.
“You are improving quickly,” he said. “I think we are ready to move you to real blades.”
“Are you joking?” she asked.
“No,” he said as he went to a trunk and pulled out a slim rapier for her. “It is highly unusual, I admit, but your progress has been amazing. Almost preternatural.”
She blushed at that. She still lacked confidence in her abilities and doubted the truth of her own visions. But Rainier knew she was special. He could see it in the remarkable progress she had made day by day. He decided to make it his personal mission to help her confidence grow until she saw the same strong, powerful, beautiful woman he did.
But what would he do with her then? If she truly came into her powers and knew her own strength, she could certainly leave him. Would she kill him in the process? The man who had kidnapped her, drank her blood, and killed her fellow slaves? He certainly hoped not. He hoped she would see him for the good he had done for her. After all, she never would have discovered who she was or even found the book or the ship if they had never met.
He had to help her see that their shared enemy was the Hoodoo Queen, not each other.
“Why is my blade so small compared to yours?” she asked.
“Every person has a blade that is right for him,” he said.
Catheryn cocked her eyebrow.
“Or her,” he amended. “When a sword is used correctly, a small thin blade can do just as much damage as a large one. It is more important to have a blade that fits your body type and fighting style than to have the biggest one in the fight.”
“Do you think that is true in all fights?” she asked. “A person smaller and weaker can take down someone bigger and stronger with the right skills.”
“Certainly,” he said. “I have small crewmen and large crewmen. I even have female crewmen, though I would dare you to pick them out.” Catheryn’s eyes widened at that, and Rainier laughed as she obviously began trying to figure out which of the ship’s crew were women. “The point is, they can all hold their own in a battle. I depend on each one of them. But they all know their own abilities.”
Catheryn nodded, but said nothing.
“You are beginning to believe in yourself, aren’t you?” Rainier asked. “You are wondering if even though you are younger and your abilities not yet fully formed, if you could take on the Hoodoo Queen, if you were trained properly.”
“It’s a fool’s errand,” she said as she raised her sword. “Let’s just focus on this.”
Rainier nodded as he took his position. “Advance.”
By the time the sun was setting, Catheryn had improved by leaps and bounds. She had achieved a level of sword mastery that would take years for a normal human. She was in awe of her own progress.
“If I wasn’t experiencing this for myself, I’d never believe it,” she said as she leaned against the desk, panting.
“Think about what you could accomplish if you applied the same training techniques to your magic,” Rainier said.
“Maybe,” Catheryn said softly.
Rainier could sense she was starting to believe in herself, but she was also scared. Her whole world had changed in the last few days. It was a lot to take in.
“Why don’t I go see the cook and have dinner brought up,” Rainier said, sheathing his sword in the scabbard at his belt. “Maybe I can even find a good bottle of port to celebrate with.”
“You still drink alcohol?” she asked. “And eat food?”
“Of course,” he said. “Why do you think I have a cook?”
“I thought he just cooked for the human chattel,” she said.
“No, we all eat food,” he said. “Just some of us more than others. Anyway, I’ll be back soon.”
When Rainier got up on the main deck, it was eerily quiet. Usually the evenings were a time of relaxation and revelry for the crew. There would be people singing, playing music, dancing, playing games of chance. But tonight, there was no reveling. The deck was surprisingly empty, and the few men who were milling about were not in a celebratory mood.
Rainier went up to the helm. Mathis was there, minding the wheel.
“How goes it?” Rainier asked.
“Calm,” Mathis said. “Too calm.”
“It is quiet,” Rainier said. “There is a…tension in the air, wouldn’t you say?”
“Aye, that I would.” Mathis didn’t look at Rainier, but kept his eyes straight ahead as he steered.
“As my first mate,” Rainier said, “I hope you will be honest with me.”
“As you’ve been honest with me, sir?” Mathis asked, clearly implying that Rainier had not been honest with him.
“This is my ship and my crew,” Rainier said. “It goes where I bid it and does as I command.”
“You and I both know that ain’t how this works,” Mathis said. “These men rely on you to do what is best for them.”
“And they think I’m not acting in their best interest?” Rainier asked.
“Sending them off on some fake treasure hunt while you gallivant off in the forest with that…that weird girl?” Mathis asked. “Not bloody likely.”
“It’s not my fault the map didn’t pan out,” Rainier said. “There was always the chance it was a fake or a decoy or had already been plundered. That’s a pirate’s life, is it not?”
“If you had been by the men’s side they might agree with you,” Mathis said. “But you didn’t go with them. And you didn’t wait on the ship like you said. You at least lied to them on that score.”
“Fine, one lie in all my years of captaining this ship,” Rainier said. “Can they not grant me leniency for one screw up? Did it not occur to them that maybe my intention was to stay, but plans changed unexpectedly?”
“It’s more than that, sir,” Mathis said. “It’s that girl. You ain’t been quite right since we brought her on board.”
“What do you mean?” Rainier asked. Of course it was true. He was feeling weaker and less vampirish since he started feeding from Catheryn, but he had tried to act the same around the crew.
“You’re a terrible actor,” Mathis said. “But that was what always made you a great captain. The men knew you to be sincere. Now? They know you ain’t right. If they feel you could be leading them astray, they won’t tolerate ya for long.”
“What should I do?” Rai
nier asked. “How can I gain back their trust?”
“Get rid of the girl,” Mathis said. “Leave her at the next settlement we come across. Or just put her in a lifeboat and shove her off. Get her off this ship.”
“As you so eloquently put it, Mathis, not bloody likely,” Rainier tried to say with a bit of lightness in his voice. But Mathis was having none of it.
“She’s bad luck,” Mathis said. “She may be human, but she’s bewitched ya. The men can’t trust your decisions as long as she’s on board.”
“You are talking complete and utter nonsense,” Rainier said. “Do my men really think me so weak that I would be influenced by some woman?”
Mathis shook his head. “I’m your mate and your friend. If you won’t listen to me, what does that tell you?”
“Mind how she goes,” Rainier said, giving Mathis the order to focus on the ship, and stomped away.
“Aye, sir,” Mathis called out after him.
Rainier couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After all these years, after all he’d done for his crew, they would doubt his ability to lead them just because he kept a strange woman in his room. He’d known pirate captains with much worse habits than that. There was Captain Rosenthal, who not only drank blood, but tortured his human captives, often flaying them alive right on the deck. There was Captain Blackheart—he gave himself that name—who would not just make men walk the plank, but would shoot them out of a cannon for insubordination. Then there was Captain Lacroix, as dangerous as she was beautiful, who took a whip to her lovers, as Rainier well knew.
Rainier made his way to the cook’s station and ordered a meal of roasted chicken and vegetables be plated. He then visited the wine room to find an appropriate pairing.
As much as he wanted to keep Catheryn with him, though, shouldn’t the needs of his crew come first? If the crew wanted him to throw her overboard, shouldn’t he do it as a show of good faith even if it was an extreme request?
But he was the captain. If his crew was grumbling, he should be more stern with them. Keep them in line. Keep them to their work.
Pirate's Curse: Division 1: The Berkano Vampire Collection Page 10
