Once outside The Crimson Swan, the two walked together in silence, with the Caribbean night speaking in soft ways to them both. Tiny unseen frogs and other melodious creatures chirped and hummed around them. Music was now drifting in the air in low intoxicating ways. It was very late and most musicians around were too tired or too drunk to play with any fire. The mix of natural sounds, of the wine they drunk, of the soft drums and mournful guitar on the air made the moment rich. Two inebriated parrots flew in dizzying fashion when they walked past, startling them. The two laughed. He felt her hand take his arm. It felt natural and very pleasant. He placed his hand over hers the way he had seen lovers in Paris when he visited the haunting gaslit streets. He adored that gesture. It seemed timeless as if to hold and secure such moments inside the flesh.She looked up at him, her eyes soft and full of warmth.
"I believe it is this way," leading him to turn down a dim corridor.
She slowed then stopped. There in the near darkness, she laid her back against the wall.She studied him a long while.
"As I've said, Sir, I am no angel."
Jovan had turned to face her when she stopped walking.
This time, the strange pull came again sweeping them together. She gripped the wall behind her. Now, he came to her in a rush. He stopped with inches between them; her silken skirts just barely blocked the heat of her thighs from his. His hands fell on either side of her head holding him from falling on top of her, bracing his body from touching her. He calmed enough to trace the shape of her lips with a finger. He was careful to make contact in just the slightest way, the heat from the digit transferring to the delicate parts of her mouth. She gave his finger small, lingering kisses. A lustful laugh surged from him.
"This is some magic you have over me, girl! If we kiss, much more will happen between us right here and now. I won't even do that much in this place where I have taken wenches against this very wall. I want far more from you than a standing fuck in the dark. Ask me to your home or for you to come to my cabin. I know you want every pleasure we can discover together ... I’ve seen it in your beautiful head. Ask me now... or I walk away."
She was quiet a long while.Her answer came in a soft, voice. Her fetching face tilted up toward his. Her eyes caught the moonlight, making her seem both alluring and bewitching.
"Captain Jovan Miguel Sandoval Contreras... it would be my deepest pleasure to entertain you at my home. Yet... you must never return there once you have come. There is always danger around me."
Touching her gingerly, he ran both his hands down from her shoulders to her elbows. Her body shuddered. His laugh was smokey. He answered “Ves, tu eres mi angel. Even now you try to protect me.”Jovan sensed a faint movement from the darkness, but chose to ignore it. The drink and company caused him to let his guard down.
"Step away from the witch." A shadowy voice came from behind him, deeper within the alley. Jovan glanced at the entrance as two figures blocked the exit there while another two blocked the opposite entryway. They were trapped.The voice continued. It sounded familiar to the captain. "You have embarrassed many connected fellows, woman. This hurting is your final warning. Don't play in the games of men."
Amanda leaned into Jovan. He placed a hand behind her silken neck. Before he could speak, she informed him. “Do not worry for me, Sir. I can cover myself quite well. I am not afraid of such trash.”He smiled. Oh, yes, this woman was made for me.
He gave a wry smile. "I had the feeling, my lady. Stay right at my back. Nothing gets behind us."Then, he addressed the voice without turning more than his head to one side. He looked at the large, darkened shape from the corner of his eye. He recognized the voice. Blake was a mercenary. He knew the man for a time, ages before he disappeared to join with thugs, then as Jovan had heard, worked his way to becoming a hired killer.
"Blake, is it?" Jovan said, shielding Amanda's body with his own.
"Captain Contreras?" Blake’s voice wavered, adding, “Don't get involved."
Jovan’s voice filled with a simmering rage. "Leave her alone, as of this moment. You know how I am, Blake. Tell those who sent you that I will bury my hands in their guts! I will rip them open like rotten fruit if they continue this harassment! "
Sternly, Blake growled, "This doesn't concern you, Spaniard.”
"Too late... for you." Jovan spun away from Amanda, drawing his cutlasses.
Amanda stepped away from the wall, turning her back to Jovan. She snatched two small rods from the back of her corset. Foot-long shafts telescoped from them and their tips ignited with a blue-white light.
Jovan heard the others running through the alley toward them. He would have enjoyed a fight if he wasn’t so concerned about his new companion.
He came at Blake low. The killer slashed his forearm just as Jovan turned sideways giving the man a deep gash to the ribs with his cutlass. The mercenary with the captain at his back, trying for a quick kill, only caused a thin flesh wound. Jovan sensed the man did not want to take him on. His true target was Amanda Collier. He was good at an instant kill in the dark, but Jovan, being a captain of a successful ship, had his own advantages. He was very skilled at hand-to-hand combat, more muscular and better fed than his opponent. Jovan used the killer’s own downward blow to trip him off his feet and caused him to fall onto his own back. The captain lifted him by his crotch and chest and hurled him like a sack of flour. He landed on one of the thugs that faced Amanda and both men hit the ground hard. Jovan dropped to one knee, pulled a dagger from his boot and flung it, slamming it straight into the eye of one of the two men from the back entrance as they approached. The captain of the Devil Moon dove for another assassin, but the man dodged his slashes. The killer flit his sleeved arm as if pointing over Jovan’s shoulder to Amanda. A dagger was released from its hiding place, just passing Jovan’s ear. Amanda seemed to dance as she swung her batons with harsh, effective blows. The dagger whizzed past her from the other direction. The man she faced was the largest and came at her like a bull. His partner was passed out in a pile with Blake on top of him. The larger brute was not expecting her to spring into the air, just high enough to slam one of her strange buzzing rods square in his face. The blow came with the force of lightning and hammers directly to his brain. Before he collapsed to the ground unmoving, she moved fast, joining up with Jovan. Blake rose to his feet with animal-like menace in every movement.
Amanda and Jovan were now positioned back to back, facing two killers coming at them from either direction. A rough, low noise hummed through the air. Steel wheels made a strange sound on stone and dirt. Amanda let out a horrid, near deafening scream. Jovan was sure he'd never heard a voice male or female make such a loud cry. An odd sight fell into the alley facing the opening that Jovan could see. Horseless carriages were still strange to him. It was a dark vehicle with a true carriage look to it and steam rising from its pipes instead of horses. A black figure at the wheel was all Jovan could see when the rig stopped short at the opening in apparent response to her scream. He felt her moving at his back. She said to him in a rush, "Shield your eyes, Captain! Be ready to run!”A dark laugh tore from Jovan. “Run? Really? I like your dance too much to leave now, woman!”
Blake started at them."I will blow you both to hell! You two are dead meat!"
Jovan knew without looking that Blake had both his pistols drawn.
Amanda hollered. “Goodnight, Gentlemen!”He felt her move, with a jerk, then the darkened world lit up with a loud blast and a harsh flash.
They took advantage of the blinding light, running off towards her motor coach. He heard the door open. Jovan reached for her and felt her slim waist in his hands. He got her to the door sensing the driver was also rushing her into the car.
“Go!” he commanded to her driver. The sounds of running feet came from behind. He took off into the night as the coach sped away in the opposite direction.
4.
Captain Contreras,
Thank you for your many letters and gifts. I have enjoyed your kind words and your tender expressions of affection towards me. As you well know, it is my practice to return gifts from suitors. I’m afraid it was impossible to complete my normal idiosyncrasy with your latest token due to the heat of the tropics. The chocolate was melted in the package. It was not wasted, I assure you. Melted chocolate, I have now discovered, is as delightful as when it is firm. It goes well in the end product of the steamed coffee drink I created for Armand de Argus, the owner of The Crimson Swan where we first met.I think of you often, Captain. Our connection is still strong inside me. This fire will take a very long time to die. I fear it was a grave mistake to have been so familiar and inviting with you. It places you in horrid danger. If you still feel the pulling heat that this allure between us casts from time to time, understand that it is an ability that is natural to my family, but it is a very rare thing. It is in no way a curse or witchcraft. It means that you and I would have made, in the strangest of ways, a perfect match.The truth is that danger swarms around me and will continue to kill those connected to me. You have a life that is full. You have much to lose. The savagery you faced the night we first met will grow as the frustration of the employers of those thugs. Be assured, I will not and cannot stop creating. I must help humanity. It is my family’s legacy. If I am to be hated as I try with all my soul to improve man’s lot in this world, then so be it. Yet, I’ll not see your ship burned or you wounded or worse because of me.I wished we had kissed the night we met, even in that foul alley. I would have cherished the memory. I can only imagine that we did kiss. I find in some matters, the imagination is a hollow thing.
This will be my last letter to you.
With tender regards,
Amanda Collier
My Dearest Miss Collier,
I beg your forgiveness if any of the milky substance I was so careless in wrapping stained your beautiful hands or any other part of you. I know the ravages of the Caribbean sun on the dark flesh of chocolate. In absentminded fashion, I bound the thing in a way that I can imagine, lead you to touch your fingertips to your tongue. Knowing that you drank this last gift and enjoyed it over time, that the bitter sweetness melted in your mouth, means as much to me as if you touched my own bronzed skin.My life is filled with unimaginable danger. I am not afraid to die. Yet, from what I’ve seen of your fighting skill and the tools you have devised to end the predation of hooligans, together we would be unstoppable. I am haunted by this gift we shared when we were together. I want nothing more than to explore it further. There is very little that surprise me as I have lived a long life at forty years. But this gift you have, your visions, have leveled me. There are so many new directions you and I can discover together if you want. As far as your mission as an inventor, if we were to unite, I would never halt your creativity as long as we took time for pleasure. These things must come in equal amounts or what is the purpose to all of our hard work? I must admit, as I grow older, I am looking forward to quieter comforts, though I could never end my connection to vast open vistas of blue and of course, to adventure.I am pleased we did not kiss the night we first met. It is not always possible, but a man should know when faced with quality, there would be more to lose in being impulsive.I feel our connection in the damnedest moments. The worst are near evening, yet I know how to end this burning. I am sure the solution would be satisfying for us both, however you continue to refuse my company. Though it may take time, I am certain we shall find the comfort we both need. You will discover it is not so easy to dissuade me from seeing you again, especially when the object of my affection has almost come to terrible harm before my very eyes.
We shall meet again, my angel.
Captain Jovan Miguel Sandoval ContrerasCommander of the Devil Moon
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