Except that when his narrow lips moved, it was a female voice that came out. Low and sumptuous and very smooth, with a Hispanic accent.
“Under my skin,” it said.
She went completely rigid, unable to do anything but listen.
“I’ve been under this skin for a while now, you see. And feel it’s time to move on. I yearn so very much to have a woman’s body once again.”
This alarmed her so badly that Carolyn woke up.
The man in the pale suit was sitting down across from her, the black discs of his sunglass lenses staring coolly at her face.
* * *
For a moment, dream and reality merged, and she wondered if she really was awake. And then the man cracked a cautious smile.
“Hi,” he said, “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
She pulled herself together. This was just coincidence, and that was all. She told herself that several times, because she hated silly women who gave too much credence to their dreams.
“No.” She shook her head briskly, trying to hide the fact that she was slightly nervous. “Not at all.”
Why, she kept on wondering, was he dressed that way at a beach resort? Maybe he was with the hotel’s entertainment.
“You’re American?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure. But I haven’t lived there in a good few years.”
He began to list the places that he’d stayed in, all of them south of the border.
And something began to dawn on her as one location followed the next. One of the things she prided herself on was keeping up with current affairs. She read the serious papers every day, almost from cover to cover.
Some of the places he was mentioning . . . hadn’t there been disasters there, the past couple of years? Earthquakes, floods, or else some kind of violence? Was she remembering it right? She wasn’t even certain.
But perhaps he was a journalist, and followed such events around. Maybe that explained the constant traveling.
She was about to ask him, when the sky rumbled again. The clouds got even darker, taking on colors around their edges she had never seen before. The wind grew even stronger, blowing parasols over and knocking empty glasses from adjoining tables. Waiters scurried about, looking troubled. And the kissing couple left the beach.
Carolyn stared up with a shiver.
“Do you think there’s going to be a storm?” she asked.
The man looked unbothered. He tilted his face back. Took off his shades. And that was when she got another mild surprise. She’d never before seen anyone with blond hair who had such dark brown eyes.
He studied the clouds, their peculiar hues reflected in his gaze.
“Yes,” he told her finally. “I think there’s going to be a big one.”
Then he stared back at her.
“Have you been to Havana yet?”
“No,” she answered. “Why?”
He smiled again, rather stiffly this time.
“There’s a place I’d like to show you.”
A nightclub? she wondered, the idea seeming to come to her out of nowhere.
And the word had not been in her dream. But she thought it anyway.
Karibe.
What did that mean? She’d never even heard a word like that before. But it continued to echo through her mind, in spite of her bewilderment.
Karibe.
The wind had become so unruly that the pale jade sea looked like it was trying to tear itself apart.
Carolyn stared out across the hissing, churning waves, uncertain what to do.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Tony Richards was born in London, England. Widely traveled, he often sets his fiction in locations he has visited, and his shorter work has appeared in F&SF, Weird Tales, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and a number of anthologies including Best New Horror. He has been shortlisted for both the HWA Bram Stoker Award and the British Fantasy Award.
ALSO BY
TONY RICHARDS
The Harvest Bride
(shortlisted for the HWA Bram Stoker Award
for best first novel)
Night Feast
Dark Rain
Night of Demons
Midnight’s Angels
We hope you enjoyed reading this Pocket Star Books eBook.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Tony Richards
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First Pocket Star Books ebook edition September 2013
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Designed by Kyle Kabel
Cover design by James Perales
Cover art of woman © Trevillion; stormy skies over colorful buildings © Getty Images
ISBN 978-1-4767-2709-7
Tropic of Darkness Page 23
