Blackwater (19 page)

He grabs my arm, "Where are you going?"

I look back at him and point, "You go back to the house and make sure she don't recall none of that conversation. I'm not great at that eye magic shit. I'll be back." I don’t even recognize my own voice, it's a growl and a mean one at that.

His eyes sparkle, "Don't do anything you'll regret."

"I ain't done nothing but shit I regret." I grumble and stalk off into the dark and hate the way the word shit sounded like sheet. My accent is getting thicker.

He laughs behind me, "When did you get such a foul, countrified-mouth on you?" I sneer and ignore him.

My boots crunch along the ground; I don’t know where I'm walking to. I sniff the air. I can smell him but it's faint and in every direction. "Damned humidity." It's like he's hiding under a blanket.

"Maria?" I call into the night skies, "Auntie Maria, you there? I need your help." I am about to keep walking, certain I can't call on the dead, when I feel it.

The cold air is refreshing as it hits, "You calling me, child?"

I shudder when I see her, white mist floating in the air. I swallow and try not to be terrified. "You know where I can find Martin Ryan?"

"Huh?"

I cross my arms and nod, "I need to find someone. A man named Martin Ryan. Can the other dead folks help you find him for me?"

Her misty hands land on her cloud like hips, "What I look like a hound dog? I don't know where he's to. Y'all need to go home. Sunrise is in a couple hours."

I shake my head and wonder how weird I look talking to a cloud in the dank air, "No need to get snippy. You were nicer when I was little."

She gives me the same look I'm giving her, "You was nicer when you was little too. Now you a dead, nasty creature. Go home, Lorelei."

That stings coming from a ghost, "How is it I can see you so clear now but before I could only hear the whispers?"

"Because now you dead too. And here I got me the magic of Louisiana." she whispers and the cold air is gone.

"Damn, that's probably a bad thing." I mutter and close my eyes smelling the air around me. His scent is the same as it always was. I turn to the right and start to run.

I find him precisely the way I expected to, balls deep in a young pretty girl in a seedy-ass motel. She looks so much like me, I'd have thought she was me. I grimace through the window and then walk to the door where I roll my head and shoulders a few times. I shrug and try to loosen up; I'm tense from the meeting with Angie. I feel sick and it hurts in a way I can't explain to myself. My emotions still don’t work the way they used to. I take a breath and kick the motel door open. He jumps up and covers himself. I close the door and grin, "You miss me, baby?"

He squints and backs away. "Lorelei?" Terror crosses his face with the recognition.

I grin harder, "The very same." I grab the foot of the terrified young girl on the bed, trying to cover herself, and drag her squirming naked body to me. My fangs launch.

"Please leave me alone," she begs. Sometimes I like it when they beg, just a bit. My hands move faster than their eyes. I grab her silky dirty-blonde hair and pull her head up into my embrace. I bite down hard on her throat. My fangs crunch into her neck and instantly her sweet blood fills my mouth. She's sugary and fresh like an orange plucked from the still warm tree. I almost close my eyes but I don’t want to give him the chance to stake me in the heart. I can't die until I eat him up, slowly.

I moan as she gives up the fight and lets me suck her to near dry. She twitches on the floor when I drop her and step over her dying body.

His eyes are wide and horrified.

I wipe the blood off my lips with my hands, "I'm gonna enjoy killing you, just like you enjoyed mauling me like a bear in heat."

He shakes his head and quivers, "Lorelei, I swear. I was a young man then, hopped up on my hormones and you were so pretty. You still are." His words taper off into a whisper and he has the audacity of looking at my chest.

His wide eyes flicker between the dying girl on the floor and the evil shit-eating grin on my face.

"Tables have turned haven’t they, baby? I'm the one in control. You ain't got no rights now. No control over the fact I'm too young and too stupid to see how ridiculous the whole thing is. Not like back then." I remember Whit's words about Southern debutants. He was so right.

I take a step towards him, watching his eyes darting about the room for a plan. It makes me smile.

"You think you can outrun me, Martin baby?" I cross my arms, "Go ahead, try." My voice lowers as I look at him through my lashes.

He swings at me but my hand moves faster than his, I backhand him hard. He staggers back. I grimace, averting my eyes, "Put some shorts on at least. No one wants to see that little thing."

He leaps at me, growling with rage. I grab his shoulders and drop him to the ground. I hold him facedown on the now dead girl. Her wheezing and death rattle has stopped. He squirms and screams as I push his face into her bloody neck.

"You wanted her, have some of her." I shove his face harder. His strength is remarkable but it's nothing for me. I lift him into the air and hold his bloody face to mine, "You will cooperate with me. You will answer my questions."

He almost fights it but then nods.

I drop him to a crumpled heap on the floor.

I sit on a chair across from him and sigh, "Why did Angie marry you?"

He shakes his head and answers like he's in a daze, "Her daddy. He made her do it."

I raise an eyebrow, "Why?"

"I told him that I had been screwing her for months and she was with child."

I clench my jaw and hold back the rage building in me. "Was she?"

He shakes his head, "No."

"Had y'all been having sex?" I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers.

He shakes his head, "Just once."

"When?"

He swallows, "I made her do it in the woods at our engagement party. She was real drunk and I told her if she did it, I would go easy on you. I wouldn’t let my friends have a turn with you, if she gave me her virginity." I wince as he speaks the words. I have to control my anger.

"Why her?" I whisper.

His face is frozen in the blank stare and his words are like they are being spoken by the dead, "I wanted to marry her before I ever asked you. She had good connections. Her daddy was a man of influence. But she hated me. She hated me always. I wanted her, but she wouldn’t have me. She heard about me being caught with Margery Banks. She told me I was the last man alive she would marry. I gave up and told my daddy to make a deal with your daddy. You was so pretty. That made Angie angry with me. She offered me herself, to spare you marrying me. Hurtful bitch. Y'all were lucky I wanted you at all. I was a prize. I'm the Governor of Louisiana for Christ's sake." His words fill with a tiny bit of emotion.

I shake my head, "Did you rape Margery Banks and Angie?"

His eyes fight something. His jaw clenches. After a second he slumps and nods, "I did."

"How many girls you raped?"

He shakes his head, "I don’t know."

"Are you scared of me, Martin?"

He nods and swallows.

"Do you understand what I am?" I get comfy in the chair.

He shakes his head again, "I don't know. Death?"

"Crawl to me, Martin."

He fights himself but his body moves. He crawls on his hands and knees to his death.

"Look up at me like a good doggy."

With hate filling his eyes and bitterness covering his face, he looks up at me. I don’t see the boy I once did; his face is so altered. But in his eyes I still see the twisted horrid person he was. Only now he's an old man who hasn’t aged right. His skin is too tight and too tanned. His soul is blacker than mine I think.

"Did you ever love her, Angie?"

"No."

"Were you cruel to her the whole time?"

He nods.

"Did you beat her and rape her throughout the marriage?" I can feel the hold I have is almost gone. I'm breaking myself with this. The torture ain't just for him. I deserve every ounce he does.

"Did you?"

He nods again.

I grin bitterly and point my fingers, "Tilt your head, show me that strong neck, sugar."

He does it.

I lean into his cold eyes and whisper, "Fight for your life, Martin." I sink my fangs in his throat as he comes to life. I hold him as he punches and grips but he doesn’t stand a chance. His blood fills with adrenaline. I moan and rock in the chair, holding him like a scrambling cat.

I suck him to the point I did her but I don’t drop him. I hold him tight and rock still. His anger and bitterness made his blood taste of it. Tears leap from my eyes. I have destroyed him.

"I wish I could make your soul go to hell. I wish I could make you suffer the same things you've given her, for all of eternity." My black tears leave my eyes, landing on his dying face. He coughs one last time and then he's gone. He gurgles and dies in my arms. The death is too kind for him. He deserved so much worse.

I stand and leave the motel room. Leaving him and his naked mistress on the floor for all to see.

It's the fate he deserves. If I can give Angie a few years of tranquility and peace, I'll be happy. I owe her that in the least. She tried to save me the fate I was stuck with. She tried to spare me everything. She tried to warn me and I abandoned her. I let him rape her in the woods at my party. I need to forget it. I need to get rid of it. I need it to go away. The guilt and pain don’t sit right with my soullessness.

I walk to the old hiding house, looking for him.

"Whit." I call out. I need him.

I see movement across the old field. The moonlight bounces off his face as he steps. I can almost hear Nina Simone singing when I see him. His broad shoulders and thick arms make my knees weak. I can hate him and let him love me. I decide it when I see his face. He knows I've done something naughty. He can smell the blood lust that’s filled me.

I whisper to him, knowing he'll hear it, "I need you."

His pace picks up. I jump into his arms and wrap myself around him. His soft lips caress mine gently. He is taking his time with his kisses and strokes. He's savoring me.

"I need you." I murmur into his hair as his head dips into my neck. My body is on fire. The blood is coursing through me.

"I've wanted you since the minute I saw you." His words are brushes of warm wind against my nape. I shake my head as his fingers softly play with the button on my jeans. He undoes them.

I can't take the softness and slow loving. It's not what I want. I push him back and pull my jeans off. He toys with my white underwear. I rip them off as well.

He chuckles, "The blood has you hot and bothered."

I growl up at him, "You do it or I find someone else to do it."

He growls back and sucks the bloody metallic taste from my lips, "You're mine, Lorelei."

I want to be his. I reach up and rip the button off his pants and drag them down forcefully. His underwear slides down with them.

I lie back in the itchy wheat and yank him on top of me. He tries kissing me again but I'm determined to get what I want from him. I position him and dig my fingernails into his ass cheeks to drive him forward. I cry out when he enters me. It feels bad for the first couple strokes but after a second he's getting into a rhythm and I'm starting to enjoy it. I move my hips against him and wrap my legs around him again. His body is sliding over me and in and out of me and I'm feeling things I've never felt before.

Finally. Finally it's happening. I ride him as much as he rides me and when he grips me and cries out, I feel finally complete. I don't orgasm with him but it feels amazing. I love the feeling of him inside of me. I love everything about him.

"Oh my god, Lorelei. That was incredible." He is breathing wildly into my hair and kissing the top of my head. I roll us over and am sitting on top of him, with him still inside me. I look down and even though it makes me sick, I'm glad it was him. It was always meant to be Whit. I always wanted him to have my virginity.

He frowns and looks at me. He's beautiful. "You didn’t orgasm?"

I shake my head, "No. It was kind of short, I expected it to be longer and besides it was my first time. I just wanted it to be over and done with." It's a lie but I want him to rot inside about it. His face drops as I pat him on the chest, "Thanks though. This was fun."

He looks sick as I get off of him and grab my jeans. I try to pull them on, but end up hopping about on one foot.

"What? Fun? What are ya doing?" His accent thickens up a bunch. He sounds like he's fresh from Scotland.

"Damned skinny jeans." I mutter and struggle. They're making my getaway hard. I give up on them and walk across the field for home, bare assed. I'm grinning inside. I got him, finally. I have hurt him. It isn’t even close to revenge and it's petty, but I'll take anything I can get.

I can hear the confusion in his panicked voice when he screams after me, "Lorelei, wait. I can make up for that. I can't believe it was your first time. I mean I can...I could tell… But trust me, the second time is way more fun. You got me all worked up. I didn't know ya were really a virgin. I honestly didn’t believe you." His voice cracks and I almost laugh.