Midnight Fantasy [The Doms of Sybaris Cove 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 4

  She paused and glanced out over the audience. At first, Renata thought it was a bit silly and that she was only doing it for dramatic effect, but then she studied Petra’s face carefully, and a violent shiver ran down her spine. Renata reached for Garrett’s hand on her left and Javier’s on her right, not understanding her reaction, but trusting it just the same.

  “It wasn’t written by a human.”

  Petra let the gasps and mutterings die down before she continued.

  “At least, she doesn’t identify herself as a human. It was written by a loa named Ayezan who identifies herself here.” She highlighted the passage on the screen. “This is one of the lost Taino dialects that Jan was able to identify. The writer did this throughout the passages. She switched dialects mid-sentence, and Jan and I both believe it was done to confuse the reader and to conceal the truth from the Durantes and Raleighs.”

  She brought up another screen. “This is a close-up of the part where the language changes from English to the dialects, right after Ayezan is ready to describe the boon the demon requires to cast the curse. The boon is identified here, but first you need to know a bit about Ayezan.”

  Petra paused once again to let the chatter in the room die down. Renata moved to the edge of her seat, fascinated.

  “She protects the markets, public places, doors, and barriers, and has a deep knowledge of the intricacies of the spirit world. She is one of the oldest loa and is therefore entitled to first offerings at services. She has a good, loving heart, but she punishes those who have made mistakes. Not because she is a sadistic woman but to correct their behavior in the future. She will punish those adults taking advantage of the young, the rich taking advantage of the poor, and the strong overpowering the weak for profit. She is believed to have the ability to purify her surroundings and to exorcise malevolent spirits from her devotees. You can see from this description why she is involved in this curse.”

  A few people in the audience laughed softly as Petra clicked on her laptop until a close-up of the previous passage filled the screen. “And here is the boon. This was a tricky one for Jan because it’s written in four dialects, and they change with each word. Once again, she feels this was done to keep this secret from the reader. The boon was a sacrifice not related to the Durante or Raleigh family, but one the four had to choose.”

  Renata’s blood ran cold. She glanced first at Javier and then at Garrett, wondering what the hell kind of ancestors these two actually had, and why she was here at all.

  Chapter Five

  Garrett swallowed hard. They’d all waited so long for this moment, but now that it was finally here, all he wanted to do was bolt. He wondered what William, Robert, Iago, and Agapito had really done that none of them had heard about to bring this down on their heads.

  Lost languages, passages written in different dialects so the reader would have one hell of a time translating them—if they were translated at all—and now this. Being forced to choose the sacrifice for a curse that would come down not only on your head, but on the heads of all your male descendants.

  He squeezed Renata’s hand as he glanced at her profile. She sat forward in her seat, her face impassive, but the tiny beads of sweat along her hairline gave away her mental state. She’d grown up here. She knew the ramifications of this curse as well as anyone on the island. Whether they were descended from a Durante or a Raleigh or not, every person living here was affected by it.

  He and most of his relatives knew women who had refused to become involved with a Durante or Raleigh male because they knew they’d have to make a choice one day, and hadn’t wanted to have to do it. And on this island, where the Durantes and Raleighs made up almost forty percent of the population, that didn’t leave too many other choices.

  “The sacrifice was a person.”

  Petra let the excited chatter die down before she continued. Garrett leaned forward to glance at Javier. Neither man had ever heard this before, but he wondered if any of them had.

  “They were given a list of names. All four women were convicted criminals currently serving jail time in the same police station that now exists. But they weren’t in there for serious crimes. They were in there for things like petty theft or prostitution, and all of them had family or friends who would care if they died. It was a particularly cruel choice the four were given, because all of the women were descended from natives who either worked for the families, or had once been intimately involved with them.”

  Petra brought up two other documents and arranged them side-by-side on the screen. “This is the document that both Brett and Jagger Durante have, but each man only has one part of it. They were both told it contained the text of the actual curse, and that’s correct. But it also contains the names of the prisoners, and which one the original four ultimately chose by drawing straws.”

  Petra highlighted several passages. “Neither Brett nor Jagger have ever known what their documents said, so they didn’t know they each had a piece of the same one.” She used a laser pointer to indicate the first highlighted passage. “These are the names of the four women. You’ll recognize their surnames because they all have descendants in this room tonight. Carla Thilenique, Maria Da Costa, Deanne Cayenne, and Faith Fontanette.”

  Renata gasped, then stared at Garrett with huge eyes. “That was my great-grandmother, on my father’s side,” she whispered. “I was told she died as a young woman from being poisoned.”

  Garrett let go of her hand to place an arm around her shoulder, and then he met Javier’s gaze again. He didn’t need to ask. Javier was thinking the same thing. The woman Petra was about to reveal as the sacrifice their great-grandfathers had chosen was Renata’s ancestor.

  * * * *

  Renata listened with a detached fascination as Petra continued. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. She’d grown up here and had listened to theories about the curse, from the truly absurd to the more recent belief that it had never been real to begin with. But she’d never heard anything close to this. Was everyone else in the room just as surprised?

  Petra met her gaze for a few seconds, and Renata shivered again. The woman had Phyllis’s eyes, and her same strength of presence. She was intimidating, but at the same time, Renata sensed a compassionate heart.

  “The woman they chose was Faith Fontanette. They poisoned her, and then they burned her body as a sacrifice to the demon who cast the curse.”

  This time, the crowd’s reaction wasn’t noisy or lighthearted. She heard a few gasps and whispers, but that was it. Renata wanted to crawl under her seat and hide until they all left. She kept her gaze on the stage, not daring even to look at either Garrett or Javier. She was grateful to have Garrett’s arm around her, because she needed the warmth of a human touch right now. She squeezed Javier’s hand again, and stroked her arm with his other hand as Petra continued.

  “I know this is difficult to hear. Phyllis and Nita have filled me in on all the theories and speculation about the curse over the years, and I realize this is the first time any of you have had to deal with the fact that others outside the family died because of it.”

  Petra indicated the second highlighted text. “This is where Faith’s name and the account of her death are recorded.” She used the laser pointer to draw attention to the next highlighted section. “And this is the actual text of the curse. Both documents contain this text.”

  She adjusted her headset. “This text was recorded by Iago Durante, but his cousin, Agapito, as well as both William and Robert Raleigh were also present when the curse was cast. That isn’t something any of you knew before, but it’s all right here. In Shona’s diary is a vision that Iago had. He told it to his daughter and she wrote it down, word for word. In this vision, he was warned by a man only identified as Juan, one of the natives, what would happen to the four if they didn’t change their ways.”

  Petra stopped for a moment, and Renata imagined she wanted to let that sink in. “Obviously it had no effect, because the four were curse
d eventually. First they made them sacrifice a woman who didn’t deserve to die, and then they made them watch their own curse. The demon who actually cast the curse is named Patan, and he is the one who demanded the boon from the natives who summoned him. Four other demons help carry out the curse even now, and their names are also recorded here. Succorbenoth, Verin, Xic, and Nybras.”

  Petra clicked a few more times, and then the screen contained Taj’s document again. “And here are the names of the natives who summoned the demon and asked for the four to be stopped. None of these men had children. They all married, but their wives either miscarried or gave birth to stillborn babies. That was their sacrifice for cursing the four. They weren’t allowed to have their names carried on.”

  She pointed toward the passage and read their names, but Renata didn’t hear anyone react. How sad. There was no one in this room that would even remember them. “They called on Ayezan to help them summon Patan, which is how that loa became involved.”

  The screen behind her went dark, and then Petra stepped out from behind the podium and adjusted her headset. “I know this is a difficult evening for all of you. I won’t pretend to understand how you feel, but I do believe it’s better that I don’t. I can lift this curse for you. And it will help that I’m not emotionally involved in it. I know a practitioner on St. Croix who specializes in these kinds of tricky situations. And let me assure you, it is tricky, as well as dangerous.”

  She walked across the stage slowly as she spoke, her dark eyes serious and commanding attention. It was deathly quiet in the room, and Renata realized that the mood had gone from festive and almost comical to dark and uncertain.

  “This isn’t something to be taken lightly. The text of that curse makes it clear the demons never intended to lift it because they didn’t believe the men from the two families would learn to mend their ways. I know a few of you have successfully gone into the ocean and lived. I don’t know what that means, but that is part of what I want to help you find out.”

  She stopped and faced the group from the center of the stage. “So, with your permission, I’d like to have my friend come to the island and start to make contact with the other loa whose names are in Shona’s diary. We will need their help with this, unless we all want to end up cursed or dead.”

  No one made a sound or moved. The air in the theater was so still that Renata glanced around to make sure everyone hadn’t fainted.

  Finally, Asa came onto the stage again, carried the microphone across it, and spoke. “Thank you, Petra. Of course you have our permission to bring your friend here. And thank you for sharing all of this with us tonight. Does anyone have any questions for Petra before we wrap this up?”

  Renata didn’t listen to the questions. She was too busy trying to absorb the fact that her great-grandmother had died for a curse that had nothing to do with her. When Javier asked if she wanted to leave the theater, she was out of her seat in a flash. The men led her back into the foyer, and then Garrett asked if she wanted anything else to eat or drink.

  “I think I need some air.”

  They walked into one of the parlors and went out onto the balcony. The view from up this high was breathtaking at night. The entire town was spread out below them, and she even spotted the lights in the parking lot of Phoebe’s Playthings. “You think Asa has a telescope around here somewhere that he uses to spy on his employees?”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me,” said Javier. “Are you okay?”

  “No. Not even close.” She faced them both. “But now at least I have a small idea of how you two must have felt your entire lives.”

  Javier pulled her into his arms, and she let him hold her. It felt so wonderful, and her body’s reaction surprised her in light of what she’d just learned about the curse. She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent, letting the memory of that kiss wash over her once again. When he released her, his gaze was dark and full of lust, and it was all Renata could do to keep breathing.

  “How about we head to my house?” he asked. “It’s a beautiful night for stargazing, and I do have a telescope.”

  “Stargazing?” asked Garrett, his tone implying that Javier must have a hidden meaning, or couldn’t be serious.

  “Yes.” Javier held her gaze, and Renata sighed out loud at the intense look in his eyes. “Or whatever else Renata would like to do.”

  “I’m in,” said Garrett.

  Holy shit. If she had any doubt both men wanted to be with her tonight, she didn’t now. All she had to do was let it happen. She stared at each of them in turn, casting aside her earlier trepidation at what this night might bring. She’d had a great shock. All of them had. But she also knew that what she felt right now was more a product of years spent thinking about these two and what she’d left behind, than anything they’d heard from Petra.

  There was nothing she could do about the past. In time, she’d have to reconcile it. But for now, she didn’t want to hear anything more tonight about loa, demons, or that damn curse. She’d waited years to come home, and even longer to look into Garrett’s and Javier’s eyes again. She’d hurt both men, but that, too, was in the past. They’d forgiven her. Tonight was a chance to start over, and Renata wanted to embrace it completely.

  Chapter Six

  Javier’s home was everything she’d imagined it would be. Not as large as Asa’s by any stretch of the imagination, but filled with expensive furnishings and antiques, like his. Yet she didn’t sense an aura of pretentiousness as Javier gave her a quick tour. Rather, it was almost as if he were apologizing for having so much wealth.

  She’d thought he was kidding about the telescope, but when he led them to a tower room above the second floor, she gasped at the expanse of windows that circled the entire room. She knew nothing about telescopes, but the one dominating the center of the room was huge.

  “Come on over. It’s a beautiful night for this.” She walked toward him and watched him make adjustments on the telescope as he peered into the viewfinder, and then he motioned to her. “All right. Don’t touch a thing. Just look with one eye. Close the other.”

  Renata gazed into the telescope. “What am I looking at? I mean, which constellation?”

  “That’s Cancer, and southwest of it is Leo.”

  She straightened up. “I never understood this stuff. All I see are stars. I can never make out shapes among them.”

  “It takes practice and patience.”

  She laughed softly. “Something I have neither of, apparently.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t say that. This is something you either have a passion for or you don’t.”

  “Like music?”

  He grinned, and her pussy grew wet. “Exactly. Same principles, really. Unless I play my cello every single day, I get rusty. But I have to want to play it. All the talent in the world won’t make me a great musician unless I use the skill constantly.”

  “Is that what you want to be? A great musician?”

  He chuckled. “Not anymore. But I do love to keep up my skills, so I still try to play every day.”

  “I’d love to hear you play.”

  “You will. It’s a promise.”

  Javier peered into the viewfinder again, and Renata glanced toward Garrett. “And what about you? Not much call for a football player on this island once you graduate from high school.”

  The corners of his mouth turned up. “Not much call for it in high school, considering we only have two teams. Kind of silly to even have it, I suppose.”

  “No, not at all. People love it. The games were well attended, from what I remember. Is that still the case?”

  “It is, only because unless you want to spend time and money traveling to the mainland, you aren’t going to see a live college or pro game here.”

  “Thank goodness then for ESPN, right?”

  He laughed. “That’s for sure.”

  “But what about other interests, Garrett? Surely you have them.”

  He shrugged. “I pour
my heart and soul into my job now.”

  Javier straightened up. “We all do that, Renata. It’s expected of us.”

  His words made her sad, and it brought home once again the reality of their lives. Javier had played very well in high school, from what she remembered. If he could have left this island and pursued a music degree, who knows what might have happened for him. And the same thing held true for Garrett. He had been the star player their senior year, but he’d never had the opportunity to play college ball or try for the pros.

  “If this curse is lifted one day, do you think that will change? I mean, you’re all stuck here so you stay and work for the family company. If you can leave one day, what will happen to Phoebe’s Playthings?”

  “I don’t think anything will change much,” said Garrett. “Asa and Tim make it worth our while to work there. Anyone who goes off to find a better deal likely won’t.”

  “How do you know?” she asked.

  He almost looked embarrassed. “Well, from Lani. My ex-wife.” Renata wished she hadn’t asked, but how was she supposed to know he’d use her as an example to prove his point?

  “She’s from Arkansas, near Little Rock, and her family owns one of the largest miller and marketer of rice products in the country. They’ve been in business over twenty years longer than Phoebe’s Playthings, but from what she told me about the company, the perks still don’t compare to those we have.”

  “That’s only one company.”

  He shook his head. “She knew a lot of people around the country, some of whom were born into companies whose names you’d recognize. We lead charmed lives here. Trust me on this one.”

  Javier returned to his telescope, so Renata took advantage of the moment and moved closer to Garrett. “None of my business, but what happened with her? With Lani?”

  Garrett sighed out loud. “Nothing earth-shattering. I met her when she and some others from her family’s company came here to see our set-up. Phoebe’s Playthings has a business model that’s taught in MBA programs around the country. She stayed, knowing I couldn’t leave the island, but I don’t think she bargained on what that would actually mean for her in the long run.”