Watery Graves Read online

  Contents

  Legacy Club Teaser

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Review Request

  Coming Soon

  Free Book

  Copyright

  About the Author

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  Chapter One

  Taking my first underwater breath might have been the most frightening experience of my life. Yes, I had Agwe’s aspect. I knew on an intellectual level that I was supposed to be able to do it. I was even able to open my eyes without any saltwater sting. But that first breath… we’d been underwater for almost a minute.

  I’d moved with surprising ease once we went beneath the surface. I didn’t have a tail like Agwe, but my body seemed to move through the ocean effortlessly. My head pounded. My feet started to wobble beneath me. Must be oxygen deprivation, I thought. I clung to the small totem of a serpent—Dumballah’s blessing—that I’d won by becoming the default winner of the Voodoo Trials. I was supposed to be able to use this thing to create anything I wanted… presuming it didn’t offend Dumballah himself. I casually considered using it to make myself an oxygen tank.

  Annabelle! You have to breathe! Isabelle, the girl whose soul had been fused to mine for nearly a decade, screamed in my head.

  “Can’t you force it?” Pauli asked her, his luminescent multi-colored body slithering through the water beside me. Since Pauli was a human soul, trapped in a snake’s body, he had the benefit that other animals had of being able to hear Isabelle speak. He was pretty much the only one.

  I can’t force it… not until she passes out and I take over.

  “Well that might be what happens,” Pauli said.

  I stared at my boa constrictor friend with wide eyes.

  “Breathe, Annabelle!”

  I shook my head.

  “Don’t make me do it…”

  I scrunched my brow as if to say, Do what? It didn’t take long to figure it out as a tail-lashing to the gut forced out what air I’d been holding and I instinctively inhaled the ocean water.

  It was probably the strangest sensation I’d ever had. Water filled my lungs, and I expelled it effortlessly.

  “Feels weird, right?” Pauli asked.

  I nodded. It would take a while to get used to the sensation. Even the fact that I could hear Pauli speak underwater seemed strange. I mean, it defied basic anatomy. For the vocal cords to work properly, they require air. Needless to say, air is in short supply when you’re underwater.

  “I don’t understand how any of this works,” I said.

  Agwe was swimming several paces ahead—clearly trying his best to move slowly so we didn’t fall too far behind. He had the advantage of a mer-tail, which I imagined gave him more speed than I could muster under the sea.

  Under the sea…

  Dammit.

  Now that song from the Little Mermaid was stuck in my head.

  I hummed the tune out loud.

  Really, Annabelle?

  I smirked. “You’re the Disney fiend. I didn’t expect you’d have objections.”

  I just like the messages in the Disney movies. They’re wholesome films.

  “No they aren’t,” I retorted. “They teach kids that their parents are dumb and backwards and they should just follow their hearts. How is that good for kids?”

  I don’t know what you’re talking about.

  “Think about it. Moana rebels against her backwards father because the stupid ocean is calling her. If I had kids and they pulled shit like that, they’d be grounded… literally.”

  They’re just movies, Annabelle.

  “If kids followed their hearts, they’d do nothing but eat candy, tell fart jokes, and watch YouTube videos of other kids playing with toys that they don’t have…”

  Pauli slithered around my body. “Yeah, what’s up with those channels anyway? Whole families making millions by doing nothing but filming their kids playing with toys.”

  I shrugged. “Beats me. But kids eat that shit up apparently. If people weren’t watching it, their videos wouldn’t be monetized.”

  Agwe had inadvertently separated himself from us by several paces. With a flick of his tail he stopped and twisted his body around, staring back at us as if to say, What’s taking you so long? If he’d actually said it, I would have told him in no uncertain terms that these feet were made for walking. Not whatever the hell it was we were doing. Not walking. Not swimming. Gliding, sort of.

  “Stop your bullshitting,” Agwe said. “We are approaching the deep. We need to move quickly. Our destination is on the other side.”

  I bit my lip. Agwe hadn’t struck me as the foul-mouthed type. Don’t get me wrong—some of the Loa curse like sailors. From what I understand, Maman Brigitte claims she invented the F-bomb. I think it’s a load of horse shit, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Not that I’d had many encounters with her, but she wasn’t exactly a Dixie belle. Though, I wasn’t exactly one to talk—I’d much rather be known as a badass than a belle.

  “If they come upon us,” Agwe said, “don’t make any sudden movements. The undead sense and feed off of fear. Move confidently, deliberately, but not so much so that it suggests you’re running away.”

  “Did you just say undead?” I asked.

  Agwe nodded.

  I didn’t need to follow up my question. A shadow fell over our position, and I slowly turned my head upward.

  “Holy shit… is that a…”

  Pauli slithered around me and looked up. “Zombie shark…”

  “Zombie shark,” I repeated, doing my best to mask my fear. Caplata-animated zombies had attacked my family when I was a kid. Zombies were still a regular uninvited guest in my nightmares. And sharks? Fucking terrifying.

  “What kind of asshole turns sharks into zombies?”

  I shrugged. “Mer Bokors, maybe?”

  “Anne Bonny,” Agwe said as he turned over his shoulder.

  I was a bit taken aback. I hadn’t realized he could hear our conversation. He wasn’t too far away from us, but something about being underwater made it seem like he was farther away that he actually was. I could see clearly with Agwe’s aspect—that wasn’t the problem—but my depth perception was way off. When you’re down this deep, where the water is pure and clear, it’s hard to really tell what’s close and what’s far away.

  “If you’re close enough to hear us, then that shark…”

  “He’s not so far away as he seems. All it would take is a quick swoop downward, and he’d have one of us for a snack.”

  “Our brains, you mean?” Pauli asked. “You know, since he’s a zombie shark.”

  “Zombies don’t just eat brains,” Agwe said. “That’s a my
th. They eat hearts, too.”

  “Thanks for the information,” Pauli said, a sarcastic tone building in his voice. “Now all of my fears have subsided.”

  “Is Anne Bonny a Caplata?” I asked.

  Agwe shook his head as he slowed down, trying to stay at our diminished pace. “Yes and no. She’s something worse than that. But she should be of no concern to us should we pass through here undetected. Let us proceed as intended.”

  Pauli and I exchanged incredulous glances. Not a concern? I wasn’t buying it. Whoever this Anne Bonny chick was, the bitch could command zombie sharks. I mean, who does that? You’d have to have a serious case of the nasties to create an army of undead sharks.

  “Just don’t show any fear,” Agwe said. “Move calmly and at a regular pace. If they think you’re afraid…”

  Agwe didn’t need to finish his sentence. I got the gist. Most red magic, the shit the Bokors use, feeds on primal emotions, like fear. To these sharks, fear would be like blood in the water.

  I glanced up as two more zombie sharks joined the first. They swam in circles as if they were stalking us. Their eyes glowed red—the same kind of red that filled the eyes of vampires who possessed the aspect of a red Ghede. Zombies and vampires… sort of like two sides of one undead coin. As frightening as these things were, it made me wonder if these waters had vampire sharks, too. I seriously considered pissing my pants just thinking about it.

  “They’re circling,” Agwe said. “They can sense your fear. Keep it in check.”

  I bit my lip. Suppressing fear is one of those much easier said than done sorts of things. Mind over matter. Fear is something primal. You don’t just shut it off by willing it away. It takes years of serious yoga or meditation to have that kind of control. Not that I hadn’t tried those things—but I barely knew enough yoga to make it through a game of Twister, much less did I possess the mastery to detach myself from my fears. I had another method. It worked just as well.

  I bit my lip and started singing, quietly.

  “Zombie shark, do do do do do da-do.”

  Pauli looked at me with is beady snake eyes. He snorted. And then joined in.

  “Zombie shark, do do do do…”

  You guys need to stop, Isabelle said.

  I sang louder. “Zombie shark, do do do…”

  Annabelle, I’m serious! This isn’t a time for jokes.

  “Ease up, girl. It’s funny and you know it. If we’re joking around, we aren’t showing fear, right?”

  I could hear Isabelle sigh from within the confines of my mind.

  Reluctantly, she joined in. Zombie shark, do do…

  “Girl,” I said. “That’s the spirit. A bit pitchy, but it’ll do.”

  Pitchy? Are you serious right now?

  “Not at all,” I said. “That’s the point.”

  Agwe glanced at me over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes—the dude didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor. Or maybe he’d just never heard the baby shark song before. Or he had… which would undoubtedly explain the look of complete annoyance. Either way, we hadn’t become zombie shark breakfast yet, so I assumed it was working.

  “This isn’t working,” Agwe said.

  I guess I was wrong.

  “More sharks are coming. Anne Bonny must know we’re here. Be ready.”

  “Be ready for what?” I asked.

  Agwe glanced up. I followed his eyes. One red-eyed shark was staring down at me.

  I sighed. “Here goes nothing.” I spoke the name of the dragon elemental who I could call upon to form my soul weapon. Beli. He took my preferred form of a blade—a form that wasn’t so much used for slicing and dicing, but a good blow with the blade would send anything “undead” right to Samhuinn, the realm of the dead where such creatures belong.

  I squeezed the hilt of the blade. “Ah, feels just like coming home.”

  Before I knew it, the shark who’d had his eyes on me charged my position.

  I parried to the left and brought my blade down on its dorsal fin. One slice, and the creature dissipated into a dark cloud—underwater it looked less like smoke and more like a squid had been in the neighborhood with a serious case of the runs.

  Pauli zapped his body out of the way of a second shark that had zeroed in on his position—transporting himself on a rainbow that seemed even more luminescent underwater than usual.

  Catching me off guard, Pauli had wrapped himself around my body.

  “What the…”

  My body dematerialized. He transported me some fifteen feet away. I looked back to where I’d stood a half second before just in time to see a giant shark chomp his jaws over my former position.

  “Close one. Thanks!” I said.

  Annabelle, behind you! Isabelle said.

  I swung my soul blade around my body just in time to catch a third shark across the snout.

  “How many more of these are there?” I shouted.

  Agwe was in something of a wrestling match with a shark, himself. “Too many,” Agwe said. “We’ll never make it.”

  “Pauli,” I said, “can you get us out of here?”

  Before Pauli could answer the question, Agwe blew on a conch shell—one he’d been wearing around his neck.

  To the left! Isabelle warned.

  Three sharks approached my position. I willed Beli to reform into a crossbow and shot three bolts in rapid succession, each landing on its target and leaving giant black clouds where the three sharks had been before.

  Four more, on your other side!

  I spun around and shot a few more bolts, dispatching the other sharks quickly.

  “I can’t keep up with this many!” I shouted. It seemed like for each one I dealt with, two more replaced it. I could handle them easily enough, but the sheer numbers… I could only squeeze a trigger so fast. Eventually they’d overwhelm me.

  The sound of another conch blow resonated through the water—this time, higher in pitch than the one Agwe had sounded. Next thing I knew, a massive creature emerged—it had the head of a dragon, a giant serpentine body maybe a football field’s length, with a girth that would undoubtedly make Pauli jealous.

  “What in the world is that!” I exclaimed.

  Agwe turned with a giant grin on his face. “Meet the wyrmriders!”

  I looked again. A Mermaid, long blonde hair flowing from beneath a helmet that glistened like a pearl, was riding atop the beast on what looked like a sidesaddle, her tail draped to one side. Her eyes emanated a blue glow.

  Her aura… it’s familiar…

  A second later a second beast, just like the first, appeared. Another rider, a Merman it seemed, clung to its reins.

  I nodded at Agwe. As much as I wanted to marvel at the creatures, and as impressed as I was that these Merfolk had managed to tame them, we had zombie sharks to kill.

  I fired three more bolts as the jaws of one of the wyrm grabbed two more and with a violent jerk tossed them into the deep.

  “We can’t kill them,” Agwe shouted. “Not like you can. But the wyrmriders can keep them off of you. Buy you some time.”

  I nodded.

  Time was all I needed. Time, and ideally, a little more agility.

  One of the wyrmriders rode through the water toward my position. I could feel the current pull at my body due to the sheer force of the beast’s movement. The wyrmrider—the Mermaid with blue eyes—extended her hand. I grabbed it, and she flung me on the sea dragon’s back just behind her saddle.

  “Annabelle,” the wyrmrider said, “I’ll keep us moving. You take out as many as you can!”

  I nodded. “Hey, how do you know my name?”

  The wyrmrider just laughed.

  I can’t believe it… the blue eyes. The aura. It makes sense.

  “Holy shit… Joni?”

  Chapter Two

  Joni Campbell… she was the Druidess who’d helped me and Ashley, along with the Shaman, Roger, after we were attacked as children. At some point she moved away. Disappeared myste
riously after that. Roger didn’t like to talk about it. She had been the love of his life, until she left him for another dude, before Roger started seeing Ashley.

  “Joni? How the hell did you… and a tail?”

  “We’ll have time to become reacquainted later,” Joni said. “For now, take out those sharks!”

  I nodded. I couldn’t believe it. This girl, along with Roger, had basically saved my life. To think she somehow ended up joining this underwater legion of wyrmriders? And I thought my life had taken a few strange twists and turns.

  I gripped Beli and squeezed the trigger. I missed. Beli was an intelligent elemental, a dragon spirit of a sort. You’d think he’d make sure he always hit the target… but apparently, when summoned as a soul weapon, it’s my skill, not his will, that makes for a hit or a miss.

  “I have an idea,” I shouted, probably a bit too loudly, into Joni’s ear. “Just get us a little closer.”

  I willed Beli to reform as a blade—the red, white, and green energies that represented the elementals that combined to form Beli danced around the blade, making the water around me glow with a luminescent splendor.

  A group of sharks approached. They moved together with intention, as if guided by another’s will. Whoever this Anne Bonny character was, she had to have some serious magical multitasking abilities to keep this many zombie sharks on point.

  As we approached, I slid down the side of the sea serpent that Joni was riding, held onto Joni’s tail with one hand, and extended my blade with the other.

  It sliced through the sharks one by one with a fury as we torpedoed our way past them. “Gimme a hell yeah!” I shouted.

  Joni looked down at me, rolling her eyes.

  I shrugged. Pauli teleported onto my shoulders. “Dude, not the best time.”

  “You asked for a hell yeah,” Pauli said. “So, hell yeah!”

  With a flip of her tail, Joni flung Pauli and me together back onto the wyrm she was riding. “We have to get out of here.”

  “What? We’re kicking zombie shark ass down here!”

  “For now, but the numbers are too many.”

  I looked across the water at the second wyrmrider—a host of sharks had swarmed around him.