Bound By Sin (A Cin Craven Novel) Read online

  “We won’t ever see her again?” Evangeline asked sadly.

  “I will bring her to visit after our child is born,” Ares assured her.

  I narrowed my eyes. “If Claire is truly healed, why didn’t she come to tell us herself?”

  “She refuses to travel until after the birth,” he replied. “She says shifting hurts worse than being shot.”

  “I can vouch for that,” Michael muttered.

  Ares shrugged. “I told her it won’t feel the same now that she’s had ambrosia, but she insists upon worrying about the child.”

  “If she won’t come here, then you can take me to her,” I stated. “I won’t go back to Inverness and lie to her mother. I want to see for myself that Claire is all right and that she’s happy.”

  “I can’t take you to Olympus,” Ares scoffed.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because it isn’t done,” he replied. “It’s completely against the rules.”

  Since when does he care about rules? I thought. Well, probably since he’s spent the last several thousand years trapped in a jar. I suppose that would certainly adjust anyone’s attitude. Still, that was hardly my concern.

  I walked up to him, hands on my hips. “That isn’t a good enough answer.”

  He glared down at me. “You will not force my hand on this, vampire. I have given you the word of a god that your cousin is unharmed. That should be all you require.”

  I jerked my head back at his arrogance. “Ares, if you don’t take me to her, I’ll—”

  “You’ll what?” he interrupted. “I am a god, you cannot hurt me. You cannot kill me. Exactly what leverage do you think you have?”

  “Do not ever tell me that I can’t do something,” I said, looking him straight in the eye. “If you don’t let me see Claire, I promise you that I will spend the rest of my unnaturally long life finding ways to make you miserable.”

  “You can try,” he said smugly, and disappeared.

  We were all silent for a moment and then the room erupted into curses and questions.

  “That son of a bitch!” I shouted.

  “Miss Claire ain’t gonna like that at all,” Pandora said ominously.

  “Do you really think he’ll bring her and the baby back here?” Lizzie asked.

  “I think he’s a liar,” Evangeline spat.

  “I should have tossed that damned urn in the ocean the first night we were here,” Michael said.

  This went on for several minutes until Ares quite unexpectedly flashed back into the room. He glared at me and grabbed my wrist. Michael shouted a warning and reached for his sword.

  “Sheath your weapon, my friend,” Ares said with a weary sigh. “Apparently I must do as the vampire requests or I’ll never sleep with my wife again.”

  I smiled triumphantly at him. Good for Claire!

  “You have two minutes,” he warned me. “And if you ever tell anyone I did this . . .”

  CHAPTER 52

  Having experienced shifting, as Ares called it, I could readily and wholeheartedly agree with Claire’s reluctance to do it again. It didn’t get any better upon a second try.

  “That’s bloody awful!” I said, mortified that Ares had to hold me up so that I didn’t end up sprawled on the marble floor.

  “I suppose it takes some practice,” he said. “Which you will not be getting.”

  “Cin!” Claire’s chipper voice shouted and a moment later she nearly knocked me over as she hugged me fiercely.

  I wrapped my arms around her. “You are alive,” I said happily. “Let me look at you.”

  She was dressed in a flowing white gown with her red hair pulled back and fastened with diamond pins. She twirled around for my inspection, looking positively radiant.

  “I can’t believe you got shot,” I said rather bluntly.

  Claire laughed. “Of course you can.”

  Well, that I would have to concede. It was poetic justice, though, that the unluckiest girl I’d ever known had ended up an immortal with a Greek god in her bed.

  “Evangeline still thinks I should have made you a vampire,” I told her. “She misses you. We all do.”

  Claire smiled. “And I miss you. Tell Evangeline that I’ll come visit and bring a passel of children who will be able to see her and talk to her. And tell my parents that I will see them too, and that everything worked out the way it was supposed to. Ares knew how desperately I wanted to be a mother and he offered to sacrifice himself to give me that opportunity.”

  “And that gesture not only saved you, but freed him from his prison,” I stated.

  She smiled and nodded.

  “Are you happy, Claire?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know one person could be this happy, Cin,” she said. “And you should see the temple. It’s beautiful!”

  I looked skeptically at the austere, unrelieved white marble in the massive throne room.

  “Oh, it’s not all as somber as this,” she assured me. “The rest of it is quite lovely and the gardens are spectacular.”

  “Perhaps some satin cushions would cheer things up a bit,” I suggested with a wink.

  “With lots of gold fringe!” Claire agreed. “And tassels. I’m thinking tassels everywhere would be quite fun.”

  It was hard to keep a straight face when Ares was looking at the two of us in such abject horror.

  “You know what it really needs?” I said in a conspiratorial whisper. “A cat! Vendetta would just love to—”

  Ares grasped my hand. “We must go now,” he said, the almost panicked tone of his voice sounding utterly ridiculous on a god of war.

  “I love you, Claire,” I said.

  “I love you, too,” she promised.

  And then Ares flashed me back to my bedroom before I could cause any more mischief.

  “You are a menace,” he said, and disappeared.

  CHAPTER 53

  The house didn’t seem the same without Claire in it. Even Evangeline was not her usual acerbic self. She did pop in when Michael and I were meeting with Pandora, Ulysses, and Lizzie about the plans for the new village and the school house.

  “You need to find an unmarried young schoolmaster,” the ghost informed me. “Perhaps some handsome Scottish lad like your husband.”

  “What?” I asked, confused. “Why should that be a criterion?”

  This abrupt outburst drew questioning looks from everyone until Pandora said, “Miss Evangeline. I can feel her in the air.”

  “For Lizzie,” Evangeline replied. “She’s a widow now. You can’t expect her to spend her whole life stuck out here on this island with no male companionship, can you?”

  I looked speculatively at Lizzie, with her honey blonde hair and her soft brown eyes. Good Lord, I’d wager she wasn’t even thirty yet. Evangeline certainly had a point.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I promised her.

  When our business was concluded, Pandora and her husband went off to their cabin and Lizzie took the children away to her cottage. Michael and I sat on the porch for several hours, enjoying the night, and feeling a bit abandoned with the house so empty and quiet. A heavy fog had rolled in, blanketing the house in white and making it seem even more isolated and lonely.

  “What am I going to tell Raina?” I asked him. “I promised her I’d bring her daughter home. It was bad enough when I thought I was going to have to tell her that Claire wanted to stay in Georgia, but how am I ever going to explain this?”

  Michael was silent for a moment and then he said, “Tell her that she got her wish. Raina said she wanted Claire to find a man who loved her and would take care of her, a man who was strong enough to share her life.”

  “I suppose she did,” I replied. “It makes you think that you should be careful what you wish for, doesn’t it?”

  “It does,” Michael said distractedly. “Cin, your magic isn’t running amuck again, is it?”

  “Of course not,” I assured him. “Why?”

  He pointed
toward the road to the village. “Does that look like another ghostly army to you?”

  There were lights glowing in the mist and the muffled sound of people moving through the night. The fog was so thick that it wasn’t until they’d almost reached the house that I realized it was Pandora, carrying a lantern with Ulysses at her side, and what looked like the entire village following along behind her. Michael and I stood and walked to the edge of the porch.

  “What’s going on?” I asked her.

  “Your ship’s comin’ tonight,” she replied.

  “How do you know that?” Michael asked.

  “I know same way I knew you was comin’,” she said, as if that answered his question.

  “There’s a full moon tonight,” I pointed out. “No ship would try to run through the blockade at the full moon.”

  I glanced at Michael skeptically. Pandora saw it and leveled a scolding look at me which I’d only seen her use on Ginny and the other children. “The Guédé are death spirits,” she informed us. “They told me when you was comin’ and they talkin’ to me again tonight. Best go pack your things.”

  Michael and I followed her into the house. There wasn’t much to pack. Michael and I lived our lives out of trunks and we’d grown accustomed to not making ourselves too comfortable in one place. Looking around the big bedroom, though, I wished for a moment that we could have made this place the exception. Two weeks ago I would never have thought I would become so attached to this island.

  Evangeline materialized in front of me while I was folding the last of my clothes into the trunk.

  “You’re leaving,” she said flatly.

  “You knew I would, eventually.”

  She looked so wounded that I felt guilty for going. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be in the world and not be able to communicate with anyone around you.

  “Evangeline,” I said softly. “You’ve had your revenge now. Adrien Boucher is dead and there’s nothing more for you to do here. Why don’t you move on to where you’re supposed to—”

  With one last look of contempt she was gone. I knew she was still in the house. She was just angry with me. I hoped that eventually she would come to see that I had to go. There were evil things in this world that needed my attention.

  “Don’t you worry none about her,” Pandora said. “I’ll talk to her and I’m sure Miss Lizzie will too. She sure loved this plantation, Miss Evangeline did.”

  “She still does,” I said. “I’m sure that would mean a lot to her if you acknowledged her presence. And take care of that horrible cat of hers. For whatever reason, she really does love that beast.”

  Ulysses brought some men up and they carried our trunks down to the waiting wagon. As we left the yard I looked back at the house. Evangeline was standing on the second story’s wide balcony in her bottle green evening gown. She raised one hand to me in farewell and I waved back. Then she marched back into the house through the open porch doors, Vendetta scampering after her.

  I walked with the people, my people, down the oak-lined drive to the dock. Michael and I said our goodbyes to Hector, Cassandra, and Perseus. I felt a tugging at my coat and turned to see Ginny McCready walking behind me.

  “Are you ever comin’ back?” she asked.

  “Maybe not for a while, but I promise I’ll be back before you’re an old married lady,” I told her.

  She scrunched her nose up. “I told you, I ain’t never gettin’ married!”

  I chuckled and was about to reply when Lizzie rushed up, the baby asleep in her arms. “I was worried I’d miss you,” she said.

  I hugged her swiftly, ran my fingers over the infant’s curly red hair, and we walked together to the dock.

  “What if I can’t do this?” she asked.

  I laughed. “Lizzie, I don’t know anyone more capable than you of running this plantation. Not many women would face down a mob with a rifle, you know. You were like a mama bear protecting her cubs. It was really quite a sight.”

  “Well, it helped that I had vampires at my back,” she said.

  “You’ll do fine,” I assured her. “Besides, I don’t think you’ll have any more trouble.”

  Lizzie laughed. “What I wouldn’t give to hear what they’re saying about us in Savannah right now! I can guarantee you it’s going to be a long time before anyone from the mainland gets brave enough to come out here again.”

  “That was the plan,” I said. “Vampires are forbidden from meddling in human affairs. I think it’s only proper that humans not meddle in mine.”

  Pandora was standing on the dock, looking much as she had when I’d first seen her. I looked out over the still inlet, wondering if she’d been wrong about the ship. Then I heard it, the soft sloshing sound of oars moving through the water. I smiled when I saw the rowboat come out of the fog. I could make out Devlin’s tall, broad form and another man at the oars. Justine was at the bow, her silver-blonde hair shining against her dark cloak. They pulled up to the dock and Justine stood, looking like Venus rising from the sea, and leaped out of the boat. She wrapped her arms around me and I held her close.

  “I have missed you so much, mon amie,” she said. Obviously our little spat was over.

  “Oh, I missed you too, Justine,” I replied, not realizing until this moment how much that was true. It had only been two weeks, but it seemed like a year since I had seen them last.

  She smoothed my hair back. “You look well.”

  I smiled. “I am well.”

  The next moment Devlin was there and I was swallowed in his massive embrace, the top of my head only reaching the center of his chest.

  “Hello, little one,” he said.

  I smiled up at him. “How did you know we’d be here, instead of in Savannah?”

  “We didn’t,” Devlin replied. “But Savannah’s harbor is now impassable. We thought we’d come ashore here and go overland to the city.”

  “Have you got your sea legs yet?” I asked.

  He scowled. “Let’s not bring that up,” he said. “Nor the means of transportation Justine has arranged for our journey home.”

  I knew Justine well enough to know that she would never travel on any ship that wasn’t Blood Cross, so I didn’t understand Devlin’s sour expression. I turned back to her.

  “What is he talking about?”

  “The ship from hell is what I’m talking about,” Devlin groused.

  “It was the only one in port and I didn’t want to wait any longer,” Justine said defensively. “Besides, not many vessels would travel these waters right now.”

  Devlin snorted and turned his attention to Lizzie. “So, is this young lady the cause of all our troubles?” he asked good-naturedly.

  “No,” I replied. “This is Lizzie. Claire won’t be returning with us.”

  “Did something happen?” Justine asked worriedly. “Merde, I knew I should have come with you.”

  “Nothing like that,” I said. “It’s rather a long story.”

  Ginny piped up, “Miss Claire married Ares and now she lives on Olympus Mountain.”

  “All right, maybe it’s not such a long story,” I admitted. “But the details are very convoluted. I’ll tell you everything when we get to the ship.”

  Since the row boat wouldn’t hold our trunks, the men loaded them into the island’s boat so that Ulysses could take us out to the ship. While they were doing that I left Justine talking to Lizzie and I went to speak to Pandora.

  “Come with me,” I said. “You and Ulysses, come with me tonight.”

  “Why would I be wantin’ to do that?” she asked, surprised.

  “I owe you a great debt for teaching me how to tame the black magic, Pandora. I have a ship waiting. I’ll take you both up north to a free state. Or to England, France . . . wherever you want to go. I could take you to Liberia,” I offered, thinking of the country that was founded by free slaves from America.

  Pandora snorted. “Why would I want to go to Liberia? I ain’t no African.
”

  “You set me free. Let me do the same for you.”

  “I am free, Miss Cin. Adrien Boucher was more of a slave than I am. A man who don’t know his true self is a man who’s chained. I don’t need no white man’s piece of paper to tell me who I am. I’m a New Orleans voodoo queen. You keep your promises about how this plantation’s gonna be run and we’ll consider both of our debts paid.”

  “I can do that, my friend,” I replied.

  “Cin,” Michael called. “We need to go now.”

  I boarded the boat with Michael, Devlin, Justine, and the sailor from the Blood Cross ship. As Ulysses pulled away from the dock, Michael and I turned to wave goodbye. I felt a lump catch in my throat as the people of Devil’s Island were swallowed by the fog, disappearing into one more chapter of my very long life.

  “Is that a tear, mo ghraidh?” Michael asked, brushing his fingers across my cheek.

  “Maybe just a little one,” I replied.

  It’s strange how some people sneak into your heart so unexpectedly. I’d lost Fiona, Archie, almost everything connecting me to the human world, and then I’d come here. Perhaps this was what Morrigan had had in mind all along. Maybe it wasn’t about saving Claire, or thwarting Boucher, maybe it was about binding me to humanity once again. Or maybe it was about freeing my soul, making me embrace the darkness as well as the light within me. I would probably never understand Morrigan’s motives but, for once, I was glad of them.

  The sailor, a man named Harrison, directed Ulysses through the murky fog. The longer we travelled, the more I began to wonder what sort of ship Justine had found. The steamer that had brought us to America had a draft of perhaps ten feet. We were going far enough out to sea to accommodate twice that depth. I was about to voice this observation when the fog parted and she was suddenly before us, causing my breath to catch in my throat.

  No wonder Devlin had called her the ship from hell.

  CHAPTER 54

  She looked like the pirate ship that haunted every sailor’s nightmares. She was a behemoth of a ship, a four-masted galleon with sixty guns marching along her decks. Great black sails rose up into the night sky, the red Templar cross emblazoned on the bonaventure mizzen. By the gods, she was gorgeous. The steamers were faster and the ironclads were tougher, but nothing compared to the beauty of a galleon. She wouldn’t outrun any of the Union gunboats, but I doubted that any of them would give chase to something with sixty cannons that looked like the devil’s own ship.