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"She thrives on blood?" Vanessa said "Zoe, when did you start this? How? Why?"

"Hoas chosen, don’t you see? I knew the legend, good God, we all knew the legend I used to love to come here and wonder what it was like in my own mind And I sat here once and she came to me, and I knew I knehat she wanted She needed to be fed lots of blood Then there was a bit filmed here for one of the history channels…leta bit part, and I saw that he would have loved to have been a pirate It was so easy then…" She broke off, laughing softly "We had to learn, of course We started with a girl as diving here…a Baha and it was a very ood with costu came up, well…it was just brilliant Wonderful! We became pirates Travis was easy We terrified hiot on board the boat when Carlos tried to take Georgia away Oh, it was so ot, the ave to us! But you! You went and found the trunk That was very tricky, because we had to pretend to be just hanging around Key West while we caught up with that doctor and her assistant and stole it back, then got a boat and du rid of things in the sea The sea is o, you killed the people on the Delphi And you just killed more people, those retired people, on the Happy-Me"

Zoe appeared indignant "Dona Isabella needed her strength for this" She smiled "Someti off retirees on boats that are just anchored here? Now and then you can have fun You can do the whole pirate thing Ghosts rising from the sea in flesh and blood with machetes!" She smiled, so proud of herself "All you need is a place to run, excellent diving abilities and sheer talent Oh, Vanessa! Murder is really ridiculously easy The tricky part, always, was pulling off the cri back to appear to be innocent as hell Actually, the hardest night e both had to slip out of our tents to catch up with Georgia and Carlos when they left that night Catch up with theet back into our own tents so we could wake up in horror and co on the sand But it onderful!"

Zoean incredible trip abroad, or a loving sexual encounter She appeared ecstatic

Vanessa tried to keep her talking

"Zoe, you need to stop now I’ll help you If not, you’ll wind up arrested You et the needle instead of life in prison," Vanessa warned She could still feel the prod of the gun so sharply against her back

"No Dona Isabella will protect me," Zoe said "Won’t you?" Zoe smiled slyly at Vanessa, then looked to her side

Vanessa looked, too

And there she was The ghost of Dona Isabella, haughty, proud and cruel, and highly ah the pines

"You," Vanessa said, "will surely rot in all the fires of hell, and soon"

Zoe looked shocked "You see her?" she demanded

Dona Isabella looked furious She spoke with a sultry voice, pleasantly, despite her words "Zoe will kill you slowly, Vanessa Slowly You will bleed into the sand and into the sea"

Zoe looked distracted for a minute "Where’s Bill?"

"I’m sure he’s dead," Vanessa said "You think those un stop theun pressed harder

Vanessa realized that they were coh the trees to the other side of the island When they reached the sand, she thought, she would be in trouble

The moon was out, and they neared the water She could hear the waves, the sound lulling They were about to break through the trees They did

To Vanessa’s surprise, they came to a sudden halt "Ah, well, if it isn’t the Spanish whore of all ti them

"Pirate scuh hi but a mass in the air"

"As you are," Vanessa said

She was stunned when the ghost swung about, when she saw hands of mist come toward her and encircle her throat She felt the pinch…

And then she refused to do so

"You bitch! You let her go!" Bartholo Vanessa forward so that she fell onto the sand She lifted the gun, but her hand was shaking as Bartholomew pitched hi doard in the night in a mist of white and sand

And just as they did, Vanessa heard so like a whir, a hostly specters in the sand

Sean

He flew into Zoe so fast, pitching himself from the trees, that she didn’t even have a split second to pull the trigger She fell to the earth, and Jay, behind Sean, swept up her gun Zoe began to toss and writhe and scream incoherently

Sean kept her down

Lew Sanderson walked out of the trail and approached the ghosts locked in coan to speak, too, so over Zoe’s desperate tirade and screaed to Latin, and he lifted a cross, speaking the same words over and over He reached into his pocket Froun, that he would begin to shoot needlessly at the un It was a vial of water, and he sprinkled it again and again…