Holy mother of God!
Cameron shot off her bed to move closer to Belle, who laughed at her overreaction.
“There now, girl! No fear of our Janny. She only bites male posteriors.”
Janice grinned. “Truth be to that. And that I do with great relish. In particular, wouldn’t mind me a piece of a few of the ones what be sailing on this very ship, or me boss, Acheron. Oh, that one…” She sucked her breath in sharply between her teeth—or fangs, rather. “He’s got the finest backside what’s ever graced a man. If ever there be a one you want to sink teeth to…”
“And pray for lockjaw?” Cameron added, remembering what the prostitute had said to her earlier.
“Hear, hear,” Sancha laughed. “Wouldn’t mind a romp in the sheets with Acheron meself. Can you imagine the skills he must have after all these centuries?”
“Or Bane?” Belle said with a laugh. “I’d lay money he’s not one to be shy or timid. Rather, he’d no doubt set fire to the bed, what with his passions.”
Janice grinned wider. “Or our dear William or Kalder.”
“Or Bart.” Sancha purred. “Hell, sign me up for a piece of that Wild Kat or Zumari! Would love to offer up a salutation to their flagpoles and change their religions.” She winked.
“Aye!” Belle and Janice agreed in unison.
Sancha took a deep quaff of rum and sighed. “One day, me ladies, we’ve got to find some way around the captain’s ban on crew fraternizations. Even if it means all of us seducing our good captain at once to change his mind on that particular law that chafes me all the way to me nether quarters.”
Valynda laughed. “Stop it now, you’re scandalizing our Miss Cameron. Look at the poor thing! She’s as red as a British officer’s jacket.”
“I’ve heard worse.” She cleared her throat, even though her cheeks were scalding hot. “Work in a bawdy tavern at home.” Cameron returned to sit on her bed before she spoke to Janice. “So how is it that you’ve come to live among the crew if you’re not supposed to be here?”
Janice let out a tired sigh as she propped up her pillow and leaned back against it. “Evil Apollite bastards thought it funny to set me out to sea to die. I’d have burst into flames had Bane not seen me boat and known me for what I was. Caught me right before dawn, he did, and barely saved me hide.”
That made no sense whatsoever to Cameron. “How do you mean?”
“Apollites are the race Apollo first created, then cursed,” Belle explained. “Just like the Dark-Hunters can’t kill humans, they can’t kill Apollites until they begin taking souls, as they’re considered innocent until they take a human life. The Hunters, like we Deadmen, have a strict code they must follow that dictates what they can and can’t do and who they’re allowed to hunt and when.”
Janice nodded. “So there I was, adrift at sea in a tiny dinghy, helpless as a newborn babe. No oar and no way of getting back to shore on me own, since I know not how to swim. Cursing every line of Acheron’s Dark-Hunter manual he forces us to read and live by. Thought I be a goner for sure … even after I was seeing this fine ship pulling up alongside me. Couldn’t imagine how to explain me predicament to a normal crew of folks. Lucky I was it turned out to be this group of miscreants what knew who and what I was. They rushed me under cover just a mere heartbeat before I’d have burst into flames.”
Cameron arched a brow at her dire tone. “Burst into flames? That a metaphor?”
“Oh…” Janice flashed a grin. “Nay, lovey. That be an important detail, indeed. Never open a port window and be letting daylight in whenever I be down here, as it be quite lethal to me health.”
“Really?”
“Aye!” they said in unison.
Valynda poured more rum for Cameron. “All Apollites, Daimons, and Dark-Hunters are forbidden by Apollo to be in his domain. A single ray of sunshine will instantly cause their skin to blister and burn. Full exposure incinerates them. Part of their curse from the evil sun god who hates the sorry lot of them.”
“How awful!” Cameron shuddered in sympathy as she tried to imagine having to live her life without daylight.
For eternity, no less.
She could imagine no worse existence.
“’Deed!” Janice sighed. “Honestly, I feel bad for the buggers. The Apollites, not the Daimons, mind you. Can you think of being cursed to die at age twenty-seven for an act your ancestors done committed that you had nothing to do with? Tragic, really.”
Belle snorted. “Feel bad if you want, but few in life are innocent past their walking knickers. Most are out only for themselves, Janny. Hence your unfortunate past what caused you to be in our company.”
Sighing, Janice nodded glumly.
Before Cameron could ask her to elaborate, Valynda moved to sit beside her. “So what about you, Miss Jack? Have you a beau or a belle at home?”
She scowled at the exceptionally bold and scandalous way these women talked. While she was used to some bawdy ways from the patrons of the Black Swan, this group put even the rowdiest men there to shame. “Neither, I’m afraid. Paden and I had been making plans for him to purchase the Black Swan once he returned from this latest voyage. The current owner has been looking for a buyer and they had an unofficial agreement for it. We’d planned for me—and the girl he was to marry on his return—to run it for him while he sailed. Because of that, I wanted no entanglements from any man to distract me or turn me head from business.”
“Wise woman.” Belle leaned back on her bed. “Men are ever a distraction.”
“Aye to that,” Sancha agreed. “But they’re oft the best kind of distraction. At least for a few minutes.” She wagged her eyebrows, which caused Belle and Janice to laugh and Valynda to groan and shake her head.
While Cameron understood the insinuation, she chose not to comment, as it was apparent that she was the only one in the cabin without direct experience in this matter.
Something the others quickly picked up on.
Sancha tsked at her. “I take it from your silence that you’ve never sampled the dangling fruit of the bull, Miss Jack.”
More heat crept over her face. “I have not. Though I’ve heard quite a lot about it in my time.”
“Working in a tavern with the reputation of the Black Swan, I imagine you have,” Belle said with a laugh.
“Probably seen a few, too.” Janice snickered.
“More than I care to think about.” Cameron cleared her throat as more embarrassment filled her. “Some are not as circumspect as they should be.”
“Yet you’ve never been curious?” Valynda arched a straw brow.
“Not with what’s walked through the door of me tavern. They were all welcome to keep their fruits and nuts planted firmly in their breeches.”