by S. E. Akers
“So jou are ‘de Diamond Talisman,” Ms. Lá Léo whispered auspiciously.
After I shot my captor a snarky glare, I turned to Padimae and looked into her eyes. Though the she was a lot older, worn from time and troubles, this was not the same woman from my vision — not physically and above all, not mentally. Her demeanor was a far cry from the pretentious attitude she displayed to Adamas. The curse that had been placed upon this voodoo queen had humbled her. That was certain. But remembering what Ms. Lá Léo had said about Damiec being cursed, now that frightened me. Somehow the original diamond Talisman had been responsible for his blight too. He was hell-bent on taking his vengeance out on me — the diamond’s new owner, who hadn’t wronged him in any way. Would this witch do the same if her powers and mind were restored? When a Talisman is healed, they don’t forget. I had to assume this mystical rule applied to all supernaturals as well. Not knowing if she would take centuries of misery out on me was more than a little concerning. So was the fact that I didn’t really know what had happened. I’d only seen a glimpse. Beatrix hadn’t given me any specifics when she made her “traitorous” accusation, even in spite of the fact that I’d asked. Now knowing the gravity of how the Onyx could use his stone to deceive another supernatural, it left me reeling with suspicions that he could have used it to trick this woman in some way. Then there was Gallia. She had accompanied them. I couldn’t ask her. Her hair wouldn’t be ready to burn for another month or so, and it was back in West Virginia anyway. If Gallia had witnessed Padimae’s betrayal, then why on earth would she still come around here? With nothing left to do, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let out a long exhale to clear everything from my mind. I focused on the last piece of the puzzle as I listened to my gut. My conclusion wasn’t instant, but when it emerged, it howled like the wind as it called out to me.
“I’ll do it,” I announced confidently as I looked into Padimae’s eyes. I turned to Ms. Lá Léo. “I’ll do it for her. Not for you.”
Straightaway, Ms. Lá Léo made sure all the draperies that hung over the front windows were secure and ushered us back to the area in the store where the long wall of bookcases stood. She motioned for her grand-mama to lounge on the red velvet chaise.
“Exactly how am I supposed to reverse a magical curse when my powers won’t work in here?” I posed to Ms. Lá Léo as I kneeled beside Padimae.
“I’ll take care of ‘dat,” she vowed. Ms. Lá Léo prowled towards the bubbling cauldron in the center of the store. As soon as she started waving her hands and chanting words I could neither pronounce nor remember, the dark hue that covered the walls started to shimmer and magically began to fade. All the color started to slowly drain from the ceiling straight down to the floor. It blazed a trail towards the center of the room and disappeared into the awaiting cauldron. I felt my powers returning to me immediately. I looked down at my class ring. Even my diamond was now swirling with streaks of light. The spell was officially lifted and walls of the store were now a dingy shade of white. Knowing the protection spell was gone, an alarming thought popped into my mind. I looked nervously towards the front of the store, mainly at the door.
“We be safe, girl,” Ms. Lá Léo swore. “He won’t come in. He still can’t.”
I placed my fingers over the spot on Padimae’s head, exactly where Adamas had marked her with the curse, and took a hold of her left hand. I’d never hexed anyone, so I was a little nervous about trying to undo one. Not having a plan, I merely concentrated on healing her mind and restoring all of her nature-bestowed energy. A wondrous light swirled around Padimae’s brow and then spiraled around her entire body. Something magical was happening. Even Ms. Lá Léo’s snake sensed it. Tiny began thumping around wildly inside the cage. After several minutes, the spectacle of spellbinding light had completely faded away. Not a second later, Padimae’s eyes started to flutter. When she finally regained her focus, Padimae stood up and scanned the room.
“Grand-mama?” Ms. Lá Léo called out. “Grand-mama Padimae?”
Padimae glided towards the cauldron. She raised her hands dramatically, and in one speedy move, a mystical haze shot out of the bowl and traveled up the walls of the store. But to my surprise, the dingy, charcoal color hadn’t returned. She had replaced the dull, dismal shade with a vibrant purple hue. Noting my powers were back to being masked and that the energy I sensed had quadrupled in power, I assumed this was the voodoo queen’s own personal protective spell.
“I have always hated that color,” Padimae announced as she turned to us and smiled. Ms. Lá Léo sprang up and snatched her into a slobbering hug.
“Grand-mama!” she cried out. “Oh, jou be back! Jou back!”
Still locked in her granddaughter’s death-lock, she swiveled around to catch my eye. “How do you do it?” Padimae asked curiously.
“What?” I asked.
“Understand a word she says,” she remarked with a light laugh. Padimae rocked back and forth in her granddaughter’s arms and mouthed silently, “Thank you, Shiloh.”
I nodded to her feeling at peace about my decision and oddly suspicious about something else. She had addressed me, correctly, but I hadn’t given either of them my name.
With her mind and magic set aright, Padimae ordered her granddaughter to collect her things. Since the voodoo queen had been without her powers for so many centuries, Padimae insisted they were in need of a proper test-run.
“Here,” Padimae said as she handed me a pillow and blanket she had scrounged up. “You need to get some rest, child. You can sleep out here on the chaise. I’ll be in the back practicing my magic, but I will place a stillness charm on the store, so the noise won’t keep you up.”
“That’s kind of you, but I really need to get back to the hotel,” I replied.
“I was afraid you would say that. That’s why I spelled the room with a containment charm. Not until dawn,” Padimae revealed. “It is for your own safety,” she explained and then headed off to the back of the store, towards the curtain of beads. “Is there anything else you need?”
I pointed over to the snake that strangely was still wiggling uncontrollably around in its cage. Padimae smiled. “Lá Léo,” she called out. “Come feed Tiny and lock him in,” she said and then disappeared behind the curtain.
Ms. Lá Léo appeared carrying a cute, fuzzy squirrel. She slid open the lid and dropped it into the python’s cage. I turned away when the snake started coiling around its dinner. It reminded me too much of a time not so long ago down in Jolo when the makeshift dinner was me.
“’Dat should settle him down,” Ms. Lá Léo declared.
“It’s not the noise that bothers me,” I insisted gruffly.
“Oh, jou be okay… Especially now ‘dat he’s been fed,” Ms. Lá Léo teased before she headed off to join her grandmother for what I predicted would be a full-fledged, voodoo-witch family reunion.
“That’s comforting,” I grunted as I glanced over at the snake one more time before I fluffed my pillow with a smack of my fist and threw the blanket half-over my head.
“Jou sleep now,” Ms. Lá Léo growled as she threw her hand up at me. A wave of exhaustion swept over my body instantly and my eyes felt heavy. As they fell to a close, I suspected the scheming voodoo witch had zapped me with some sort of slumber charm.
Ugh… Witches and their spells! I see what Tanner means!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After several hours of sleep, I awoke disheartened that my late night adventure hadn’t turned out to be just a crazy-bad dream. Considering my eerie surroundings, one quick stretch was all the rousing I needed. The spell Ms. Lá Léo had cast made it feel like I’d only been out for minutes, though I was well-rested. I hopped up off the chaise and crept towards the front door. I gripped the edge of the curtain covering the window and paused to pray for streams of light beaming from the dawn.
Crap… It’s still dark outside. However on a more positive note, the street was empty and all the frozen people from last ni
ght were gone. That has to be a good sign, I thought as I reached for the doorknob.
“Tat, tat, tat,” a voice warned from the back of the store. I turned around to see Ms. Lá Léo entering the room. “I wouldn’t be ‘dinkin’ ‘bout doin’ ‘dat just yet. Less ‘dan an hour. ‘Den it be safe for jou.”
“So that part of the legend is true?” I asked as I walked back to the counter. “About not liking sunlight?”
“Jes. ’Dey burst into flames,” she declared, waving her hands and wiggling her fingers dramatically.
Feeling antsy and left with nothing to fill my time, I sighed and began to pace the creaky wooden floor. Tiny was still bumping wildly inside the cage, the same way he had acted last night. Ms. Lá Léo opened the lid to soothe her pet python, but as she reached inside, Tiny reared back and tried to snatch hold of her arm.
“TINY!” Ms. Lá Léo yelled. She quickly slammed the lid shut and smacked the side of the cage.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked with a bothersome frown.
“I don’t be knowin’. He don’t ever act ‘dis way.” Ms. Lá Léo spied the look on my face. “It gotta be somethin’ ta do wit jou,” she charged. I narrowed my eyes back at my charming captor and threw her a frigid smile.
“Me?” I questioned skeptically.
“It gotta be jou, girl! He be a very good boy any other time,” she praised with a steely glare. I resumed my steps, even more briskly this time. “Why jou nerves be a twitchin’? ‘De sun be up soon.”
“I have to get back to the hotel. Our group is leaving for the airport at eight sharp,” I protested.
“Good. Jou go back home. N’awlins not be any kinda place for jou.”
“My trip just started. We’re not going home. We’re flying to Veracruz.”
Ms. Lá Léo perked up. “Really? Jou be goin’ to Mexico?”
“Yes,” I answered as I continued to stretch my legs.
“Today?”
“Yes,” I restated gruffly, ruffled by her blatant nosiness. “But I’m thinking about going back home. This trip hasn’t exactly been what I’d call a vacation.”
“Why ‘dis be?” Ms. Lá Léo posed with a clueless shrug.
“Seriously?” I grunted. “My first day away from home and I got maced with onyx powder, right out of the starting gate. Then I had the ‘good fortune’ of stumbling into your voodoo shop. I snuck out of the hotel last night and accidently ran into my friend’s murder who has the fire opal I need hanging on her daggone wrist. I followed her, hoping I could get it back, but she dove off a roof! Then, a half-Talisman, half-Vampire tried to kill me. And finally, I was dragged through the French Quarter and rescued by ‘you’,” I mocked with air-quotes, “not allowed to leave and forced to sleep in a room with a python five feet away! That’s just day one! I don’t have a tiger’s-eye to hide my powers, and at this rate, who knows what other trouble is out there that I’m bound to run into!?!”
“Jou don’t be havin’ a tiger’s-eye?” Ms. Lá Léo asked as she revealed the one she was wearing.
I laughed and stomped my foot on the floor. “Does every-freaking-body have one?” I ranted out loud. Amused by my jealousy, Ms. Lá Léo strutted over to me and placed her hands on my shoulders.
“I can solve ‘dat problem for jou,” she assured in a prideful tone.
“And how’s that?” I countered skeptically.
She pointed down to my purse. “Empty jou bag and give it ta me.”
“What good will that—”
“Just give me ‘de bag, girl. It hasta be somethin’ from jou.” Confused but desperate, I complied. I dumped everything in my purse onto the counter and handed her the empty leather shell.
“Jou got a lotta junk,” Ms. Lá Léo remarked as she eyed the pile. “Messy purse, messy life,” she mumbled. Ms. Lá Léo noticed the stained area around the rip I’d made when the wand skewered the bartender earlier. She lifted it up to her nose.
“Ugh! ’Dis ‘ding stinks of vampire blood,” Ms. Lá Léo sneered and then wiggled her fingers through the hole. “And it not gonna work like ‘dis,” she mocked and rolled her eyes at me. She stepped behind the counter and poured some sort of liquid out of a cobweb-covered pitcher onto a rag. Once the putrid spot had been thoroughly cleaned and the foul stench was gone, the voodoo witch whipped out a sewing kit and began stitching the rip. After a few minutes of poking and pulling the needle and thread, she announced, “’Dere jou go. It be good as new. Now ‘de ritual can finally begin.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I gonna put a spell on it. Make a gris-gris for jou.”
“A what?”
“A gris-gris, fool. Jou don’t know anythin’ ’bout voodoo!” She pointed to the intricately-crafted ornate bags I’d noticed when I first came into her store. “’Dese are ‘de gris-gris’ ‘dat I make. I can make jou one ‘dat will protect jour identity. I can even add a charm ‘dat will let jou hide jou precious ‘dings inside. ‘Dat spell will work all ‘de time. ‘Dat be good when jou have to stow ‘dem away. If somebody try to steal ‘dem when jou not around, ‘dey can’t. ‘Dey wont be able to see ‘dem if ‘dey mean jou harm. ‘Dey invisible to ‘de wicked. Nobody can take ‘dem from you.”
“No shit?” I mumbled as I looked at Ms. Lá Léo through a new set of eyes. “So no one will know what I am?”
“Nodda evil soul,” Ms. Lá Léo replied. “But just remember, jou have to keep ‘de bag on jou for ‘de identity cloak to work. If it not in jour possession, ‘den jou up a creek! ‘De other spell work all ‘de time, but it only keep out jou enemies. Jou friends can still be seein’ what jou hiddin’ in ‘de bag and ‘dey can still sense jour energy too.”
“Got it,” I replied, excited about the prospect of solving one of my problems and turning this vacation-from-Hell around.
Ms. Lá Léo made a slit in the inside lining of the bag. She walked around the room gathering up various items. “Jou need ‘dirteen ‘dings to put inside it.”
“Thirteen things of what?” I asked with a shrug.
“‘Day can be anything, but ‘dey must embody jou.” She returned to the table and started handing me the items to shove into the lining. The first four things she had selected turned out to be a collection of metal and glass tubes.
“Here, I help jou out. Jou can use ‘dese. ‘Dey represent ‘de elements. We can start wit ‘dose.” She began revealing each one to me as I hid them into the lining of the bag. “Each vial hold a different one. ‘Dis is earth and ash from the base of Mount St. Helens, from just days after she blew. Very valuable. ‘Dis one hold water from an ancient, sacred healing spring. ‘Dis one look empty, but it houses one of ‘de angriest winds from ‘de the fiercest tempest I ever seen. And ‘dis one,” she added as she held up a mystical flame that burned all by itself within the glass, “it be one of ‘de flames caught during ‘de early days when ‘dey burn ma kind at ‘de stake. If jou listen, jou can still hear ‘de one ‘dey roasted. Hear her cries.” She held it up to my ear. I shuddered at the sound of the fallen witch’s faint, desperate screams.
“Now I need somethin’ from jou to represent ‘de fifth element, ‘de Storm.” Ms. Lá Léo picked up a pair of scissors and clipped them in the air. She flashed a sinister smile. “Maybe a lock of jour hair? I keep ‘dem honed with a diamond block. I be able to trim a nice chunk off.”
I wasn’t letting this woman anywhere near my head with a diamond-sharp pair of cutters, not without my powers. As I rummaged through the pile, I spotted the perfect thing shining in the light.
“I’ve got something better,” I replied with some regret as I slid off my diamond-fitted class ring. I hated taking it off. It was my little reminder that Daddy was with me. Ms. Lá Léo’s eyes exploded with delight. I could feel the intense desire blazing from the voodoo witch’s fiery stare.
“’Dat be an excellent choice. Almost too good to be tuckin’ it away in ‘dere.” She regained her composure and shuffled away her covetous though
ts as soon as I shoved it into the lining of my bag. “Now jou still need eight more ‘dings,” she urged. While I scoured my belongings, I ran across the lock of Katie’s hair that I’d kept with me since the day I found it.
“Can I use this?” I inquired.
“Are jou connected to it in some way?”
“Yes,” I replied. “It’s from my best friend.”
“’Den hurry up and put it in ‘dere. We ain’t got all day, girl!” Ms. Lá Léo huffed.
Seven to go, I thought as I scanned the pile of clutter, searching for “significant things”. I spotted my mysterious birth certificate that had appeared out of thin air, so I folded it several times and placed it inside. Then there was the crappy note Charlotte had left on my door. Now there was a perfect symbol that represented my “happy” family. I picked up the feather that had fallen from one of Bea’s wings at the airport yesterday morning. That left four more things. To help me ponder, I automatically reached up to give my necklace a few twists. I patted my chest repeatedly, searching for the stone. The chain was still there, but my amethyst was gone.
“OH NO!” I cried frantically. “WHERE IS IT?”
“What jou fussin’ ‘bout, girl?” Ms. Lá Léo asked.
“MY AMETHYST!” I glared at her. “Did YOU take it?”
“I may be full ‘a tricks, but I not be a THIEF!” Ms. Lá Léo exclaimed.
“I had it at the club. It must have fallen off there…or on the street.” I cringed. “Tanner’s going to be sooo pissed,” I mumbled.
“Jou lost a stone ‘dat came directly from ‘de Amethyst Talisman, Tanner Grey?” I didn’t say anything. Too distraught and fearing the lecture I was sure to get, I couldn’t even muster a confirming nod.