Serendipity: A Bayou Magic Novel

by Proby, Kristen

  “Much more. At least from before the possession. I admit, having a grumpy husband, I was moody, as well. It’s exhausting, always walking on eggshells.

  “Brielle couldn’t have been six months old when he came home one night, soaked to the skin because of a big storm. That was the night he told me he had killed Andy. I was shocked. I knew he had been in a bad mood, but I had no idea he was homicidal. It terrified me. And then, the next day, he just…changed. Suddenly, he was the same happy man I married, and things calmed down for a while. I had two more babies and thought maybe things would be different.

  “But then Daphne was about a year old or so, and it got horrible again. He was just so mean. So awful. And I only wanted to keep you girls safe. I didn’t want him to hurt you. He’d tell me he was fixin’ to hit me. Slap me around. Teach me a lesson.

  “And he did. Way too often.”

  I reach over and take her hand, giving it a squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Mama.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. It was his. Things start to get fuzzy after that. Whatever lurked in that house started to play with my mind, too. And then I wasn’t myself for a long, long time.”

  “So, Adam said he killed Andy,” Cash says, “but we don’t have any proof of that. You never confirmed it?”

  “I—no. I didn’t. He never came around no more.” Mama frowns. “Do you think maybe he lied to me?”

  “Were Adam and Andy twins?” Lucien asks.

  “Yes, I think so. I didn’t know Adam’s family all that well. His parents both died when he was a boy, and his grandmama raised him and his brother. She died before we got married. He didn’t have much other family to speak of.”

  “So, maybe I wasn’t seeing Daddy,” I say, thinking it over. “But his brother.”

  “Did he look younger or older in your mind?” Miss Sophia asks.

  “I guess he was older,” I reply as I think it over. “More wrinkles and some gray hair. But the same eyes.”

  Cash taps on his computer. “Andy Landry, lives in Baton Rouge. I have an address. I’m calling the local authorities and will head up that way.”

  “Clearly, we’re all coming with you.”

  “I’m not,” Mama says, shaking her head.

  “Ruth and I will stay here,” Miss Sophia says. “Oliver and Annabelle are due home soon. We’ll fill them in. Please, keep us posted.”

  “We will.”

  “It can’t be this easy,” Jackson whispers to me as we hurry to his car. We’ll follow behind the others filing into Cash’s car.

  “Maybe it can. We could use a leg up on this jerk.”

  Jack shakes his head. “I don’t buy it.”

  * * *

  “Nothing,” Cash says as he walks over to us. We all stood on the sidewalk, waiting as Cash joined the local authorities to look through the little rundown house. “There’s nothing in there. Looks like Andy hasn’t been home in a while. Horace isn’t using this place as his fucking torture lair.”

  “He could be literally anywhere,” I say as my stomach falls. “How will we find him? How will we find those women? Goddess only knows what he’s doing to them right now.”

  “I think it’s time for a little blood magic,” Millie says, looking right at Jackson. “We know someone who can help with that.”

  “No. No way,” Jack says, shaking his head emphatically. “We’re not getting them involved. They’ve been through enough.”

  And then, as he speaks, his expression goes lax, and his eyes cloud over.

  “He’s having a premonition,” I say softly, linking my hand with his and letting him know he’s not alone.

  “Can you see what he does?” Brielle asks. “When you touch him?”

  “No. We’re not linked that way. But he can feel me.”

  Brielle keeps looking down the street, frowning, and then away.

  “What is it?” I ask her.

  “There are four.” She closes her eyes. “And their deaths were awful.”

  Cash pulls her against him, not caring at all that the cops currently leaving the house and getting into their vehicles give him funny looks.

  “They think I’m crazy,” he says with a sigh. “And, honestly, I don’t care. If it meant possibly finding those girls here, it was worth it.”

  Suddenly, Jackson blinks and frowns.

  “I know where he is,” he says and wipes his free hand over his eyes. “We need to get to the bayou.”

  “Do you have an address?” Cash asks.

  “No,” Lucien says, narrowing his eyes as he watches Jackson. “He doesn’t need one.”

  Jack shakes his head and looks down at me. “My parents’ house.”

  “Didn’t you sell it?” I ask with a frown. “Someone must live in it.”

  “I sold it. No idea what was done with it after. I’m telling you, he’s in that house. I recognized the kitchen.”

  “Let’s go,” Cash says. “You’re in the lead, Jack. I’ll follow you.”

  We hurry to the cars, and when Jackson pulls away from Andy’s house, he swears under his breath.

  “It makes sense,” he says. “Of course, he’d target that place. I’m linked to it, and it has the bad energy from my dad killing himself.”

  “Jack.” I rub his arm and feel the tension roll off him in waves. “What was happening? In the vision.”

  “He was cleaning his tools in the sink. Blood everywhere. He was fucking whistling as if he were doing the dinner dishes. Then, a scream came from somewhere in the house, and the fucker smiled. Like it made him so damn happy. He grabbed his power drill, put a bit in it, and walked out of the kitchen.

  “I didn’t follow him. I pulled myself out of the vision. I know it’s chickenshit of me—”

  “No, it’s not,” I insist. “No one wants to see that, Jack.”

  “I figured I know where he is. We can just go get him. And, hopefully, save the girls before he drills holes in them.”

  He glances at me, his face filled with torment.

  “I’ve seen war, Daph. I’ve seen, firsthand, what men can do to each other. I’ve watched soldiers be blown apart, shot, you name it. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “Of course, not. There’s never been anyone like this.”

  He’s quiet for the rest of the drive. I could find his old house with my eyes closed; I spent so much of my time there when I was young.

  Jackson pulls to a stop in the driveway, and both of our jaws drop.

  “No one’s here,” I say quietly. “Nobody’s been here for a long, long time.”

  “Why would someone buy it if they didn’t want to live in it?” Jack asks. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I don’t know.” I glance up to find Millie standing next to my door. I step out of the car and look at the others. “There’s no one here.”

  “I know,” Millie says. “I reached out to see. I know.” She holds up a hand before I can scold her for dropping her shields. “But lives are at stake here, and I needed to know. There’s nothing living in that house.”

  “You’ll want to go inside,” Lucien says to Jack, who just nods. “We’ll go with you. Cash and I will go.”

  Brielle joins Millie and me as the three men step up to the door. Lucien flicks his hand, and the door unlocks and opens.

  “It’s so cool that you guys can do that,” I whisper to my sister. She turns back to me with a smile.

  “Lucien just gets sexier every day.” She sighs in happiness. “And you should see what he can do with fire.”

  “I’ve seen,” I remind her. “And it’s impressive.”

  “You should see what Cash can do with handcuffs.” Brielle’s smile is as bright as the sun. “It’s magical in its own way.”

  “Hell, yes,” I say with a laugh. “I’m sure it is.”

  A few minutes later, the guys come back outside. Jack’s face is set in angry lines.

  “What’s in there?” I ask.

  “Nothing,” he says. “Literally,
nothing. Whoever bought it hasn’t stepped foot inside since the day it sold.”

  “Odd,” Lucien says quietly. “But I guess people can be odd. It’s not against the law.”

  “Something doesn’t feel right,” Millie says slowly. “Like it’s all more smoke and mirrors.”

  “Well, I can tell you that there’s nothing inside,” Cash says. “Except about three inches of dust and maybe a mouse or two. The structure is surprisingly sound for sitting empty in the bayou for so many years.”

  “That’s just it,” Lucien says. “After just a couple of years, it should have started to decay. It wasn’t a new house when Jack sold it.”

  “No, it was a good fifty years old then,” Jackson agrees. “But no one’s inside.”

  “Now what?” I ask, suddenly exhausted. “He’s just got us on a wild goose chase.”

  “He’s distracting us,” Brielle says. “Keeping us from the most important thing, and that’s coming up with a plan to get rid of him. Instead, he has us running all over Louisiana.”

  “You’re right.” Jackson takes one last look at the house. “Let’s go back to Millie and Lucien’s and regroup.”

  We turn back to the cars. I swear I see a curtain move out of the corner of my eye, but when I look up at the house, it’s still.

  Chapter Twenty

  “I killed so many women, I have a hard time keeping them straight.”

  -Gary Holmes, The Green River Killer

  “Why do you continue to underestimate me?” He paces the room, his footfalls heavy, his hands fisted in anger. He’s never been so angry in his life.

  Even on the day he killed his mother, he wasn’t this angry.

  “You think you can just come here and stop what I’ve started?” He turns and glares at his toys. They’re all weeping, especially the newest one he took early this morning—naked and crying on the little mattresses he laid on the floor for them. “I’ve given you every chance, girls. Every chance there is to show me that you’re worthy of everything I’ve done for you. And I’ve done plenty. You know. You saw it all.”

  He shakes his head in disgust and rubs his hand over his sweaty face.

  “I spent years making everything good for you. Just perfect. I’ve taken blood. Eyes. I’ve sent the ghosts to you so you could see. So you could get excited. So you would WORSHIP ME!”

  His face turns red as he yells in their faces.

  “But you’re ungrateful! Just like all the other women I’ve known. You’re ungrateful.”

  He smiles then, seemingly calm.

  “And that just won’t do, ladies.”

  He paces slower now in front of the girls, his hands linked behind his back as if he’s a sergeant looking over his troops.

  “You’re not who I thought you were. I’ve denied it for a while because I wanted to believe in you. To see the best in you. But I was wrong. You’re not wonderful. You’re not for me. And because of that, you have to pay.”

  He turns to his toys and clucks his tongue.

  “Now, now. There’s no need to carry on so dramatically. These hysterics are getting old, to be honest. How are those burns coming along?”

  He leans in to check on a blonde woman who’s covered in tiny burns from her neck to her toes.

  “Healing. That’s good. Probably hurts, doesn’t it?”

  She presses her lips together and lets out a low moan of despair.

  “ANSWER ME!”

  “Y-y-yes. Yes, it hurts.”

  “Good. See now? We just have to be kind to each other. Even though our time together grows shorter, we have to be kind. There’s no need to be otherwise.”

  He licks his lips, pondering which method to use on each of the remaining toys.

  “Of course, now that I’ve decided you’re not the girls I want, the ones I need, we’ll have to speed this along a bit. I have so much to do. You understand, of course.”

  He reaches for the girl with the burns, and she begins silently weeping, the tears flowing like little rivers from her eyes.

  “Please,” she murmurs. “Please, just let me go.”

  “Now, Millie. You know that’s not how this works. When will you learn? Oh, that’s right. You won’t. You just won’t learn. So, you have to die.”

  The other toys gasp, cry, even scream as they watch Horace slowly burn the flesh from his toy until the life finally leaves her eyes.

  And then he turns to the next.

  The temper, the tempo increases as he makes his way through them, slicing and cutting, stabbing, drilling. It’s a fevered frenzy of murder, one full of rage and blood and absolute horror. Until he turns to the remaining plaything.

  The other toys’ sprayed blood matts her red hair, though her face is dirty and dry.

  No tears on this one.

  He grins, his chest heaving from the exertion of his work.

  “You’re the only one left, Daphne.”

  And without another word, he simply swings out his hand and slits her pretty, white throat from ear to ear.

  When she falls to the floor, he smiles in satisfaction.

  “There, now. I’ll have to finish this, of course. But first…”

  He walks to a bathroom and stares at the face of the man he took—the one who’s done his bidding for quite a while now.

  “I don’t need you anymore, Andy. Just like I didn’t need your brother. You were both disappointments. Did you think I wouldn’t find you?”

  A single tear slips out of his eye. He can feel Andy fighting him.

  And that won’t do.

  “Goodbye, Andy.”

  He takes the knife and stabs his eyes out.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jackson

  “He has us running in circles, chasing our tails,” Brielle says when we’re all back in Millie and Lucien’s house, settled in the library. “And all the other metaphors I can think of. It’s ridiculous.”

  “I would have sworn on my life that he was in that house,” I say and hang my head in my hands. “I know that kitchen. I grew up in it. There was no mistaking it.”

  “Your premonitions have always been could-bes,” Daphne points out. “A snapshot of what could be, not necessarily what is. And maybe it was something from years from now. We just don’t know.”

  I sigh and nod, taking her hand in mine to kiss her fingers. “Yeah. I guess I got excited at the thought of stopping him.”

  “We’re going to stop him,” Millie reminds us. “Jack, I mentioned blood magic earlier. To find him. To find the girls.”

  “I don’t want to ask them,” I admit, but Miss Sophia’s head turns to me. She and Ruth sit by the fire, each making tea satchels. “They’ve been through a lot already because of me. I’d like to leave them out of this.”

  “And in doing so, you’ll cut off a very powerful tool at your disposal,” Miss Sophia says. “Jackson, Oliver and Annabelle are a part of your journey in this. They’re tied to you, and I think it’s lovely that you want to keep them safe, but you have to remember that they’re the only parents you have. And they love you. If they can help, there’s nothing they won’t do.”

  “That’s just it,” I say and stand to pace. “There’s nothing they won’t do. They’d give their lives for mine, and I won’t have that.”

  “Of course, not,” Miss Sophia replies. “No one’s asking that of them. But I know they’ll help in any way they can.”

  “Where are they?” Millie asks. “I’ve hardly even known they’re here.”

  “They’ve been spending a lot of time researching on their own,” Ruth says. “Reading, meditating. Oliver is healing. They want to be as strong as possible for the battle to come. And they love you so much, Jackson. Give them the opportunity to help.”

  I take a deep breath. “I’ll ask. We need to find the women, so I’ll ask. But we keep them safe. They don’t leave this house. That’s my line in the sand.”

  “Sweet boy,” Miss Sophia says, cupping my face in her hands. “We won’t
let anyone hurt Oliver and Annabelle.”

  I nod and look over at Ruth. “Do you know where they are?”

  “Last I saw them, they were enjoying the garden,” she says with a smile.

  “I’ll be back.”

  I walk through the house and out the back door. Sure enough, they’re sitting in the shade, each with a book in front of them, sipping some sweet tea.

  “Well, hello there, darlin’,” Miss Annabelle says with a smile. “How did it go?”

  “We didn’t find him.” I sit across from them and lean on the table. “He’s playing with us, and we’re running out of time to save those women.”

  “How can we help?” Oliver asks without hesitation. He looks so much better than he did the day we brought him here. He’s healthy and whole now, no longer tormented.

  And I plan to keep it that way.

  “Miss Annabelle, I know you have the gift of blood magic. I know opening yourself up can be dangerous, and I don’t like to ask, but I’m going to. I think he’s in the bayou. It’s where he’s the most comfortable. But the bayou is big, and I need help narrowing down his location.”

  “Of course,” she says. “I need a map and a sterilized and charmed dagger. I’m sure we can get those things.”

  “Are you sure?” I reach over and take her hand. “We will do everything in our power to keep you safe. There are some pretty powerful witches in there.”

  “I’ve been a witch for a long time, my boy,” she says with a soft smile. “I know what I’m about. I have you and Ollie here with me, my two loves. And my friends. I’ll be safe. Now, let’s go find those poor babies and get them home, shall we?”

  * * *

  Several hours later, we’re set up around the dining room table. Candles are set around the room, and a large map of the bayou, a dagger that’s been spelled with protections, and some other things I don’t quite understand, sit on the surface.