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"Private marina," announced one of them. "The dock's closed."
Pim lifted his eyebrows and spoke in Igbo. The tone of his voice was appeasing and confused, but the words were a common Nigerian insult involving a mother and a donkey. I grinned, because the obeah men were only a distraction themselves.
"Hey!" barked the other guard, raising his compact weapon against the intruders. "This is your final warning. Back off."
I leaned forward, almost into a fall. Then I kicked my boots under me and went from zero to sixty in a blink. The first guard had his gun halfway pointed at my companions when I took both their heads clean off. Two curved blades, two slashes that spread my arms into an impressive wingspan. The headless bodies listed momentarily before crumpling to the floor.
I knelt beside one of them and washed my hand in the pumping blood. I ran the wet palm down my face, over my closed eyes, and brushed it clean with my tongue.
"Tunji!" cried Jaja, lifting his fetish in alarm.
I spun on my knees and let my blade fly. The circle of steel sliced through the air at the captain of the boat. A third man, his pistol already raised and ready to fire, lasered onto my center mass. A twitch of a finger away.
He wasn't fast enough.
The open part of the blade slipped around the man's neck. I closed the fingers of my empty hand and the weapon froze midair, hooked around the man like a collar. An invisible tether of magic led from it to my palm. I pulled violently. The boatman dropped the pistol and it lurched through the air, pitching over the gunwale and flying into my hands.
"That would've been a mistake," I growled.
I checked the boat. A well-used and inconspicuous thing. It didn't look like a drug dealer ride. The stern displayed the vessel's name: Risky Proposition. I liked that.
"You're going to take us to your boss," I said.
The captain swallowed hard and jerked his head up and down. "Okay," he said. "Then you let me go."
"Relax," I assured. "You have my personal guarantee that I won't kill you."
I smiled at Jaja and Pim as they rolled the bodies into the water and boarded the boat. I unhooked my blade from around the captain's neck and shoved him into Pim's headlock. Then I punted a loose head far into the bay. It skipped once like a stone.
The captain took us to Star Island, one of several man-made islands between the beach and the mainland, a place affordable only for the rich and famous. A high-profile kind of place, but one with the luxury of bushy yards and privacy-seeking residents. Mansions lined the water, each with a private dock. Most had yachts and cruisers much nicer and newer than the Risky Proposition.
That's when I realized the boat was a throwaway. I wouldn't be surprised if the house we were headed to was as well.
"Right there," called the captain.
Many of the houses were well lit, but not the one he pointed to. The accent lights on the lawn were dark. The sconces on the outside walls, too. Some ambient flashing within the large first-floor windows, but dim. Only a second-floor bedroom had a proper light on.
They were keeping attention away from the house. From the dock. That kind of darkness would've worked against them, too, if it wasn't for the bright moon. We could've snuck right to their doorstep in the absence of moonlight. Instead, a silverish azure highlighted everything with a monotone glow. I easily spotted the pacing guards. Confirmation this was the right place.
I considered docking elsewhere but there was a good chance we had already been spotted from a distance. Besides, my patience was wearing thin.
"Cut the engine," I said.
The boat went silent and the captain guided us to the dark wood structure. Before we stopped, two men approached from the side of the house. I fixed the spotlight on them, keeping it low enough not to alert anyone inside the home but high enough to blind the guards.
Without bothering to face him, I said, "Thank you for your service, Captain."
He only had time for a sharp intake of breath before Pim tackled him overboard. Both men splashed into the shallows. The captain's fingers clawed at the hull as the obeah man held his head beneath the lapping water.
"Showtime," I said.
Jaja nodded and raised his idol.
The first approaching guard paused on the lawn. His attention suddenly diverted to his feet. To something on the ground. He flinched away.
"What the--?"
The spirits were in his mind. They would drive him crazy.
