Sins of the Flesh (Half-Breed Series Book 2) (26 page)

“Pele.” Kai shook her head. “So, let me get this straight — a farmer who doesn’t seem like a mage did a ritual to call on Pele to cure his anthrax-nose?”

I giggled. Couldn’t help it. This whole thing had me on edge, but Kai had a way of making me laugh at even the darkest problems. “Anthracnose. Colletotrichum ananas fungus.”

“That’s what I said. Anthrax-nose. Hmm, I don’t know of any Pele legend where she cures blight or provides a good harvest. Pele tends to be a bit of a hoarder, and she’s got a thing when it comes to attractive men – regardless of their mortality. She’s the goddess who erupts Kilauea and rains hot lava on your house because you disrespected her. She’s the goddess who turns men who spurn her into trees. Not the type to dance in fields of flowers and make pineapples grow, if you know what I mean.”

I did. And the whole idea of a volcano showering me with molten rock because Cleo had gotten her hair wet from a fire sprinkler gave me the shivers.

“So if not Pele, then who? The farmer had blight, and then he didn’t. Maybe there is another god or goddess involved?”

“There really isn’t a native Hawaiian deity that handles that sort of thing. Tiki handles good luck, hence the Tiki figures every tourist goes home with. Possibly Lono. Some legends have him as an agricultural god, but primarily he’s the god of peace. Then there’s Haumea. She’s a fertility goddess, but of childbirth. She’s the mother of Pele and her siblings – kind of a general mother figure.”

“Pele has siblings?”

“Five or more, depending on which legends you follow.”

“A sister? Maybe an older sister?”

“Uh yeah. Namaka.

“Namaka — as in the goddess of the sea Namaka. No, that can’t be right.”

Kai wrinkled her brow and straddled her surfboard. “Pele has two sisters who are well known. Namaka is the older one. Pele tried to take her husband and Namaka exiled her and chased her across the ocean. The other one is a little sister – Hi’iaka. Pele carried her across the ocean in an egg and raised her on the islands.”

I gave up paddling further and let the waves rock me. “This is going to sound really weird, but Cleo kept calling me sister. Last night she even referred to me as her older sister. You don’t think she could possibly be confusing me with Namaka, do you?”

Kai burst out laughing. “Girl, you can barely stay on your surfboard. Namaka, you are not.”

“I know that. You know that. But I’m thinking our volcano goddess doesn’t. I’ve been tossing water at her since day one. She’s called me sister numerous times, and I don’t think she means it in a street-slang kind of way.”

My friend shook her head. “You’re blond and fair skinned. The entire pantheon looks like the island natives. Why would she think you’re Namaka?”

“Because she’s been dozing for a few-hundred years. Things have changed, but she’s learning fast. The legends of Pele tell of her appearing as an old lady, a beautiful young woman, even a dog, so she can change her appearance. Who’s to say her sister hasn’t decided to walk around as a blond for a while?”

“Maybe. You know, if Pele thinks you’re Namaka, that puts you in a good position to negotiate.” Kai shot me a sly smile. “She’s one of the only siblings Pele is afraid of. Namaka exiled her, chased her across the ocean, forcing Pele to create the islands. She lived all alone here in exile until the humans came. She’s probably wondering if you’re going to run her off the islands, chase her off to some place where she’s all alone again.”

Alone. Pele had her faults, but perhaps there was something behind her abrasive attitude. Maybe she was afraid. And lonely. And maybe I was an optimistic fool.

“Let’s surf.” I looked out at the surfers in the lineup. “We can get in a few waves and still make it back for my interrogation of a pineapple farmer.”

***

I waited for Irix in our room, reading as much as I could Google on Hawaiian legends. There really
wasn’t
a fertility god or goddess like in Greco-Roman pantheons. Could we be facing two gods instead of one? We desperately needed to find out what Dennis Hayworth had done – or if someone else had done it for him.

By the time my incubus returned, I’d taken to pacing. Had Hayworth botched a Wiccan ritual? Had he summoned the fire-being instead of a fertility demon? Had he bought a cursed amulet over the internet?

Irix crossed the room and gathered me into his arms, kissing the top of my head. “No more fires this morning. I found out the cane plantation cancelled their scheduled burn for today, citing dangerous environmental conditions.”

That helped, but when any spark could fuel the appearance of a fire servant, we still weren’t anywhere near being safe. The protection ritual of Kristin’s would need to wait until midnight tonight. Until then, we were on alert, ready to dash off to any fire so I could throw vials of spelled water at it, and some of the produce Irix had detoured to pick up from the store on his way back.

“Did you get the pineapples?” We’d wanted additional ammunition in case Pele started up again. We only had so many vials of magical water. If pineapples could help, then pineapples it was.

“In the trunk. I even paid extra to get ones grown on the island, just in case Pele and her servants are picky about the origin of their offerings.”

Ugh. There weren’t a lot of pineapple farms left on the islands. Like the sugarcane, pineapples were a tight-margin business. Hayworth was on the edge of bankruptcy after a few bad years. He’d stuck it out, but most corporate farms had packed it up and sold to developers long ago.

“We need to get as much information from Hayworth as possible. I’ve picked Kai’s brains and been on the internet for the past hour without getting any closer to solving this thing.”

It was so frustrating. And every passing moment brought us closer to the next fire, and Cleo’s inevitable revenge attempt.

Irix stroked my hair, and I leaned into him, regretting that our vacation had gone this way. For six months I’d yearned for him, and here we were, knee-deep in another supernatural crisis.

“The world always has a way of correcting itself,” he whispered. “I’ll do everything I can to help you make this right, but if it grows beyond our abilities, know the pendulum always swings to center.”

He was a two-thousand-year-old being, ancient compared to me. His words might be rather angelic in nature, but I still took comfort that he’d seen horrible things turn right over time. I was still on human-time, though. I didn’t want to wait for the pendulum to swing, and it terrified me to think of what an angry volcano goddess could do to the islands and their residents before the tide shifted.

I leaned against Irix. “Let’s go. The sooner this is over, the sooner we can go back to sex and sprawling on the beach.” Wishful thinking on my part, but I had to stay positive.

He grinned, cupping my face in his hands as he kissed me. “Deal.”

We took the jeep to Hayworth’s place, me a nervous wreck of worry the whole way. Would he recognize us through the sexual haze of last night? What would Irix need to do to make him cooperate? I didn’t want to witness Irix when he was going full-out demon, but it might be necessary. A whole lot more than Hayworth’s sanity was riding on this. The farmer wasn’t in the house, but all his stuff was still there. After a short drive around the pineapple grove, we found him spraying some young trees on the east side of the farm.

The farmer turned to us, eyes narrowing when he saw me.

“Private property. If you want a tour, talk to your hotel people. If you want to buy a pineapple, go to the grocery store.”

Nice, friendly sort of guy. Aloha to you too, buddy.

Irix waved for me to go first. I took a step closer to the man, thinking to try the gentle, less violent approach first. “I’m a botany senior working on my thesis, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your farm?”

I could see the scowl from his profile. “I’m busy working. I don’t have time for questions right now.”

There was a worried note in his voice, and I noticed what he was spraying. Putting a hand on the tree next to me, I felt it – thick blackness, like tar, creeping up through the bark.

“There aren’t a lot of pineapple farms left on the islands, and I hear that even the cane company is probably pulling out in a few years. Must be hard to make a profit.”

He stopped spraying and turned to me, blinking in surprise before his face settled into a scowl. “I’m not talking to you. Do I gotta take a restraining order out, or something? Get off my property.”

Time to pull out the big guns. Not those guns though. I’d traumatized the guy enough last night with my pheromones, no need to start that up again by flashing him.

“Got a bad case of anthracnose in those trees. Hope it doesn’t mess up your young fruit.”

Dennis Hayworth started, eyes shrewd. “Guess you really are a botanist. Yeah, it’s been plaguing my orchard for years. I thought I finally had it under control, but it’s starting to come back in a few of the trees.”

I picked up one of the little bottles of concentrate next to his truck. “Thiophanate-methyl. You’re using the right stuff. If it keeps coming back, you may need to destroy fruit, do a heavy prune, then spray for several months.”

The man relaxed slightly. “I tried that last year. Sacrificed three quarters of my harvest to try and beat this thing. Still came back.”

I winced. The only other solution was to clear out his entire orchard, treat the soil and leave it fallow for a few years, then replant. At that point, he’d probably be better off selling it to developers.

“Is your university working on anything new?” He climbed down from the truck bed, his voice hopeful. “I’d be happy to do a field trial on anything you’ve got in the works. I’m desperate.”

Desperate enough to attempt divine intervention. I honestly didn’t blame the guy.

“Maybe.” I waved my hand at the other trees, still healthy and full of fruit. “You must have done something right, though. Last year the whole orchard was three trees from a slash-and-burn remedy, and now you only have the fungus in a handful of trees. What brought the other ones around so quickly?”

He stiffened, his eyes narrowing. “Are you a reporter? Someone from the Ag Department? I haven’t done nothing wrong. No illegal chemicals, nothing. Now get on out of here before I call the cops.”

And here was where I played hardball. “I saw you. I saw you at the beach fire outside the resort, and I saw you last night at the hibachi restaurant. You were a desperate man, less than a month away from losing your farm. What made you think a volcano goddess could help?”

He’d blanched at the first part of my speech, only to regain his composure by my last sentence. “I’m a nice guy. I tried to put out a beach fire some kids started and did what I could at the building fire last night. I don’t know what you think that has to do with my farm or volcanoes, but you’re wrong.”

I stepped closer. “You helped last night by throwing pineapples into the fire. That’s an odd sort of intervention. Miraculously the fire vanished. Come on, Dennis. You bought a ritual, or found one somewhere, or somebody helped you. You asked a goddess for help, and she cured your grove. Unfortunately, she’s also unleashed some nasty fire servants on the island.”

And she wants to kill me. I kept that part to myself, since I didn’t think Dennis Hayworth gave a damn about my life-or-death situation.

“Yeah, well this goddess did a lousy job since I’m still out here spraying. You’re crazy, and I want you to leave.”

Okay. I’d done the best I could. Time for Irix to step in.

Power filled the air, making everything seem darker. My legs felt twenty pounds heavier. Irix crackled, his eyes a deep glowing gold.

“You called on the wrong divine being,” Irix proclaimed, his voice practically vibrating the air. “Pele? A volcano goddess? What was she supposed to do against a virulent fungal infestation?”

Hayworth caught his breath and stepped backward until he was pressed against the side of his truck. “I didn’t mean to bring out a volcano goddess. I did a fertility ritual but couldn’t pronounce the names, so I substituted. Pele is all over the place here. She’s the local bigwig, so I called on her. Besides, her name is easy to pronounce.”

Idiot. How this guy managed to pull off the ritual at all was beyond my comprehension.

“We’d like a copy of the ritual as well as the name of the person you got it from.”

“I got it out of some book.” Hayworth jerked his head side to side. I moved opposite Irix to flank him in case he bolted. “It’s just a silly legend. I felt stupid doing that ritual but figured it wouldn’t hurt. Things got better, but now I’ve got three trees dying, so, clearly, this Pele is a hack.”

I caught my breath, looking around defensively for a retaliatory wall of fire.

“If you didn’t believe it, if it’s all just a legend, then why were you throwing pineapples at the fire last night?”

The farmer opened and shut his mouth like one of those plastic talking fish. “Pineapples have a lot of water in them, so I thought they would help. It’s the only thing I had in my car.”

Liar. Even I could tell he was lying, and I had no extra special abilities in that area. “Pineapples? Seriously?” I rolled my eyes.

Irix wasn’t as amused as I was. He approached the farmer then shot out a hand to grab the man’s arm. In one swift movement, he’d twisted him around, angling the man’s arm upward and pinning him against the edge of the car.

“I’m calling the cops!” the man yelled.

“It’s difficult to call the police when you lack fingers,” Irix mentioned casually. “In fact, it’s difficult to do a lot of things when you lack fingers. I suggest you tell us right now what happened.”

“It was in a book.” Hayworth gasped, arching his back to relieve the pressure on his shoulder. “I bought a book off the internet.”

Irix pressed him harder against the truck. “What happened?”

The farmer grunted. “I did the ritual on the beach. Used pineapples as the offering. But then the fire went crazy and spread across the beach and into the trees. I tried to put it out but couldn’t.”

“That’s when your pineapple trees were cured?” I asked.