Timing: After World of Lost Souls
Goddesses
“I could not say where my favorite place to live has been. I think it is always where I am at any given time.” Salem's accent hadn't faded in all the years I'd known her. I always enjoyed the sound of her voice. Deep, lilting, rich, melodic.
A blade of grass tickled my cheek, and I brushed it away. There was little light here at her homestead to interfere with the expanse of stars above us. Wispy gray clouds drifted above, aimed for a clump to the southeast. Salem held her right hand up and waved at one, and it hurried across the patch of stars she must have been enjoying to merge with a larger one. The purple bangles at her slender, blue-black wrist clinked together. They enhanced the cool tones in her skin. Red and gold always made her look warmer. I loved her color sense.
“I would say the same of any place I take a holiday,” she added. “It is always best to be there. Although there were some terrible places that I prefer not to think on. What of you? Where have you been happiest to visit?”
“I think one of my favorite vacations was to Hawaii.” I sighed and continued wistfully, “Just me and Sarah. It's too bad vampires aren't allowed there. You've probably never been, huh?”
“I have been to Hawaiʻi,” Salem said, surprising me. She laughed at my expression. “I prayed to the goddess Hina, and she said that I might visit.”
“From one goddess to another, huh?” I turned her left hand over in mine, enjoying the contrast. Sarah always made my skin seem darker. Salem made it look so pale. I returned my gaze to her twinkling eyes. The color was gone in the starlight, though they seemed to reflect the sky, almost blue in the black. “And she just said yes?”
“I promised to not further defile her islands,” Salem said, her expression shifting to sadness. “She is the only vampire on the islands, and sometimes she gets lonely for another vampire to speak with. But not lonely enough to allow more colonizer corruption. If you wish to visit again, I suggest you pray to her to grant permission.”
“What, will she just hear me?” I asked, both amused and curious.
“She might,” Salem said, her expression now entirely unreadable. She looked away from me and whispered, “I hear my people sometimes.”
A chill ran up my spine at her words. When we were alone like this, I could forget that her people really did pray to and worship her. She seldom spoke of that role with me. It confused me. I did know that telepathy was not one of her gifts. She wasn't even empathic. Some empathic vampires could hear surface thoughts or particularly loud ones. I looked up at the sky with her.
“Is there a more definite way of contacting her? I mean, did you actually just think about her or speak out loud or what?” I asked. Salem started chuckling after my first question, but she was laughing boisterously by the last of it.
“I wrote a letter,” she said when she caught her breath. “Send a letter to any post office in Kauaʻi addressed to her, and it will find its way.”
“How did you even find out about that?” I asked.
“I asked a native Hawaiian who was visiting a club in Portland,” Salem answered. “He moved to Beaverton for a job, and when he was at the club, he was talking about vampires and his home. Of course the vampire he was speaking to knew that I would want to know, so she told me, and I asked to be called if he returned to any club. He had friends among her people, so he knew that there are protocols for vampires to visit.”
“Well, damn,” I said. “Maybe Sarah and I could finally visit that beach we wanted to see but couldn't because of my clumsy self.”
“I shall warn you that there are trials you must pass to be allowed to stay on the islands.” Salem pulled my hand over to her to measure our fingers against each other, as I often did with Sarah. Salem's fingers were as long as mine but not as thick. “You must walk over fire and accept her mark upon you to stay. It is a pact that you will do no harm to the land or those who walk upon it.”
“Mark? And what happens if you break it?”
“A brand,” Salem said. I winced.
“You let her brand you?” I exclaimed.
“I did,” Salem agreed. “Though it was her attendant that did so, not her. She healed it straight away, so the pain was brief, but the mark remained for a week. I was welcome as long as it was visible. As for the penalty for harm—your life is forfeit, of course.”
“Of course,” I repeated weakly.
Salem rolled onto her side in the grass and propped herself up on her elbow to look down at me, slipping her hand out of mine. She ran her fingers through my hair while I stared at the sky and contemplated whether that was as bad as contracting VIV had been. I knew the science behind firewalking, so that didn't concern me. Vampires could be more prone to burns from it, but it was typically from panicking or trying to run across because we were more afraid of fire than humans. I decided that I'd bring it up with Sarah later.
“Anything else to warn me about?” I asked, turning back to her.
“Other than that you may not spread word of her to any you do not trust to keep her existence secret, no,” she said.
“You're not forgetting that I need to make an offering, like bringing Bem books?” I asked. She laughed again and set her hand on my chest, over my heart.
“Do not bring anything but yourself. Do not remove the lei you are given when you arrive before meeting her nor the one you will be given after the meeting, except to sleep, until you leave,” Salem advised. “You would undoubtedly enjoy speaking with her, knowing your curiosity. I'm certain your daughter Mia would love to as well. Hina is younger than me and has never left her people, so her history is isolated but still full.”
“So, her gift is healing?” I asked Salem after a few minutes of considering what she said. She nodded.
“Healing, flying, fire and water manipulation, daywalking, and she's an empath,” Salem listed.
“Fire and water?” I repeated. That was an unusual combination.
“Mmm, should I be jealous? I think you are more impressed with her than me,” Salem teased me. She sat up on her knees. “I believe I shall demand worship now.”
“Rest assured, I'm still very impressed with you,” I said, watching her with my own amusement as she twisted to straddle me. “But I have no idea how to worship you.”
She leaned down. I closed my eyes, expecting a kiss, but she kept going to breathe in my ear, “Oh yes, you do.”
I shuddered with pleasure and met her lips when she offered them to me. I certainly didn't mind being corrected. Sarah was right; I was going pagan. I realized that I needed to unburden one last sin, a lie I'd kept up for years, before I could give her what she was demanding.
“Dayo,” I stopped her before her violet dress was all the way off.
“Yes?” she looked down at me with her star-filled eyes, and my breath caught.
“I love you,” I said. She rewarded me with that joyful smile of hers that always brought my own.
“I love you, too,” she said softly before burying her fingers in my hair and kissing my forehead. “Now say it again, and again for every time you lied to me.”
“You sure you're not an empath?” I asked, and she laughed.
“I refuse to be certain of anything, for that is the best way to be wrong,” she answered with a wink. “Now, your penance.”
“I love you,” I obeyed, smiling even wider. I sat up, folding my legs so she'd slide closer, her own long legs moving to let her sit in my lap. “I love, you, Dayo.”
She made a happy sound and wrapped herself around me tightly. I returned the embrace and repeated myself after placing kisses against her neck. Joy. If this was what worshiping a goddess brought, then I could see why she had so many devotees. Or maybe this was just love. I wasn't sure that I could tell the difference. I couldn't see why it mattered. Right now, a woman or a goddess, she was my love, and I was hers. No titles, no obligations, and nothing more to hide.
And we were finally free to make love.
