Nancy K. Duplechain - Dark Trilogy 01 - Dark Bayou

by Nancy K. Duplechain

  She took back the photograph and read, “Basically, it says, Walter, we look like a couple of goofballs here, but it made me laugh. You look like you could use a laugh, too. Excited to see you when I come down on furlough. Still can’t believe I have a brother. See you soon, Simon.”

  Everything I believed was suddenly turned upside down, and my mind started racing in circles, trying to make sense of it all. It was like I was right on the edge of the answer but couldn’t touch it yet. He had a brother. What does this have to do with anything? Why did my mother show me this picture? Need bloodline to conjure. Need bloodline to conjure. Need … bloodline!

  “Have you told Father Ben that Savoy had a brother?” I asked her.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “What did he say?”

  “He just said to call you.” She looked at me. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Just confused.”

  “Well, you’re not the only one. I don’t know what all this means, but I thought your group should be made privy to it.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered. I took the picture of the army buddies back from her. “Mind if I keep this?”

  She shrugged. “Go ahead. You can take all of it if you want. I seriously doubt U.L. is going to miss it, but if you don’t mind, I’d like the papers and texts back later so I can do my own research.”

  “I just need the picture, but thanks anyway.” I got up from my chair. “I think I’ll swing by St. John’s.”

  “Oh! I forgot to tell you. Father Ben said that if you were going to go looking for him, to tell you that he’d be at your grandmother’s house.”

  I thanked Gina again and took off in my car toward Abbeville. On the way, my mind raced again, trying to find a connection to all of this madness. I was reluctant to call Lucas, but at the moment, he was the only one who could help me with one question that had suddenly occurred to me. The phone rang several times before he answered it, and I was afraid he was avoiding me, but I finally heard, “Hey,” on the other end.

  “Hey,” I said. “I’m sorry to bother you, and I know you’ve done so much to help me already, but I was wondering if you could go next door to the courthouse for a minute to look something up for me?”

  “Look what up?” he sounded a little annoyed.

  I hesitated. “The burial plots of the Bancker Cemetery.” For a moment I thought he had hung up on me. I didn’t even hear him breathing. “You there?”

  “Yeah. Okay. I’ll call you back in a few,” he said, and hung up.

  On my way to Clothilde’s house, I noticed the sky had darkened, but out here in the country, there were still a few blue patches peeking through the clouds. My phone rang a few minutes later, when I was about five miles from the house. It was Lucas. “Hey,” I said, flipping it open.

  “Jesus!”

  “What?” I asked, alarmed.

  “What made you think of this?”

  I pulled my car off to the side of the road, afraid I would fly off a curve if he told me the answer to the question I was going to ask turned out to be what I feared. “That grave in the southwest corner, the one we dug up? That wasn’t Walter Savoy, was it?”

  “No,” he hissed. “Who’s Simon Boudreaux?”

  I rested my head back and closed my eyes. “His brother.”

  “What the hell’s going on, Leigh?!”

  “Father Ben’s at Clothilde’s right now, and I know he knows what’s going on. That son of a bitch is going to tell me if I have to make him!”

  “I’m coming right over.”

  “You don’t have to. You’ve done so much already. This is something I have to do.”

  “Jonathan’s there, and I don’t want him to be a part of this.”

  “Why is he at Clothilde’s?”

  “Miss Celia brought him with her to Miss Ya’s funeral, and she fell down the steps and fractured her hip. Your grandmother took Jon home with her to babysit till I got off of work. Look, I’ll meet you there, and we can figure out what’s going on, okay? I just want to make sure Jon doesn’t hear any of this because he’ll start having nightmares again.” We hung up, and I started my car and took off, thinking about all the things I wanted to tell Ben.

  When I got back to Clothilde’s, I recognized Cee Cee’s old navy blue Grand Marquis in the driveway. The sky had just broken into a light drizzle when I entered the house. Father Ben and Cee Cee were there. The conversation they were having with Clothilde stopped, and their eyes were on me, waiting for me to speak. They all looked very worried and my first thought was Lyla.

  “Where’s Lyla?” I asked.

  “Upstairs, playing with Jonathan,” answered Clothilde, from her chair.

  I glared at Ben. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Leigh-Leigh! Have manners,” scolded Clothilde.

  “Manners? Are you kidding? Do you have any idea what I’ve been though? What we’ve been through? Lucas and I dug up the wrong body and burned it, and you knew it!” I told Ben. “Did you know it, too?” I asked Cee Cee.

  “Sit down, and I’ll explain,” said Ben. I furiously sat in a huff in my grandfather’s old chair and stared defiantly at Ben. “You now know that Walter and Simon were brothers, yes?” I nodded for him to continue, never taking my angry eyes away from him. “Simon was older by six years. He was Rachael Guillory’s son, born out of wedlock when she was just sixteen. At her parents’ urgency, she gave him up for adoption. A few years later, she met and married Luther Savoy of Sulphur. Together, they had a son, Walter.

  “Walter, as I’m sure you gathered, was a troubled boy. He entered the Army in 1948, where, by chance or fate, he met a sergeant who he would later discover was his half brother, Simon. He talked Simon into coming back to Acadiana to meet his birth mother. Simon, who was delighted to find his blood family, took him up on the offer. Simon’s blood, as well as Walter’s, is that of a paladin.”

  My jaw dropped in disbelief. “They were paladins?”

  He nodded. “On their mother’s side. Walter thought he was the only one with an ability, so I’m sure he was surprised to find someone else with the power.”

  “What was his power? Training birds?” I asked, sarcastically.

  “The birds came later. Walter’s and Simon’s power was shadow manipulation, descended from the paladin, Yvoire. Walter was always curious about the dark side of nature. He saw there was great power in it that could enhance his ability.

  “From the time he was a teenager he studied the dark side and soon came upon the legends of Charlemagne and his peers. And, with that, he discovered Les Foncés, and it drew him like a moth to a flame. He wanted to be part of it, to feed from it, to use it. He made the study of all things dark his life’s work. He made the choice to be a dark paladin.” He regarded my puzzled look and explained further. “A dark paladin is one who turns away from the light to walk the border between being a paladin, as God intended, or choosing to be a part of Les Foncés. A dark paladin can still fight for the light, but it is a constant struggle to resist the dark.”

  “Then why become a dark paladin?”

  “Some of them choose so that they can fight more closely, in striking distance. They choose to be the first line on the battlefront. They are warriors. But then there are those who do it for selfish reasons, because they see how their powers can grow being on that line. And those are the ones who are tempted the most by Les Foncés. They are the ones who leave the light for the dark. Walter made that choice.”

  “But I thought it was a paladin’s destiny to fight Les Foncés!”

  Cee Cee, sympathetic, spoke: “It’s all about choices, my baby. Everything is a choice.”

  “When Walter discovered demonology,” continued Ben, “he found that he could conjure up a demon to make himself more powerful, but he didn’t want to experiment with himself. When he found out he and Simon shared the same blood, he coaxed him into coming back with him. He sacrificed his brother in order to conjure up the demon Raum—made the death look like
an accident. I’m sure you found out this afternoon about this demon who can transform into a crow?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, together, they tormented Acadiana, killing many people, wreaking havoc. That’s when Cee Cee, Clovis, your mother and I started figuring out what was going on. We tracked them down to a cabin in the swamp, where we banished Raum and killed Walter.”

  “You changed the headstone on Simon’s grave. Why? Why make us dig up the bones and burn them if it wasn’t even Savoy?”

  “We needed to burn Simon’s bones because his soul had been in limbo ever since his brother killed him. Simon was still a light paladin, and he needed to be brought back to the light. You needed to see it so you could believe—”

  I looked at him dumbly, the fury rising back up inside of me. “Believe? Believe what? That there was a monster out there trying to take my niece from me? I already believed that! Why do you think I was playing grave-robber? Why do you think I ever came back to this hell-hole of Louisiana in the first place? Do you think—”

  At that very second, something struck me, a realization that fit into all this madness. I took a step closer to Ben, and he held his solemn gaze upon me. “You sent those pictures to Lucas, didn’t you?” He said nothing, but that silence, to me, was a resounding “yes.” I turned to Cee Cee. “And you knew it. That’s why you were so angry at him.” Cee Cee stared at the floor, shame engulfing her. I looked over at Clothilde who sat silently rocking in her old chair, staring at the ceiling. “You knew, too, didn’t you?” She just kept up her steady rhythm and said nothing. I searched each of their faces, the anger too much for my body to contain. “Why?!” I yelled at them.

  “You needed to be pushed to make the choice,” said Ben. Anger was the best way to do it. We still need to stop Walter Savoy. As for Simon, you had to be the one to put his body into the fire.”

  “But, why make me do it?! Why didn’t you do it years ago?”

  “Because you’re Mary’s daughter,” he said, quietly.

  “What does that have to do with it?”

  “You’re next in line to take on the responsibilities of our ancestors. You needed to be part of the process. Everything we had you do was to help you become a paladin.”

  I stared at them all, disgusted. Clothilde couldn’t even look me in the eyes. She stared down at the wooden floor, ashamed. Cee Cee tried to smile sympathetically at me but couldn’t bring herself to do so. “You’re all sick! You’re sick! Is this some twisted initiation?”

  “In a way,” said Ben, wearily. “But there’s still work to be done. Savoy will come after Lyla, soon. He still aims to cut off your bloodline.”

  I jumped up from my seat and scolded each of them. “This is outrageous! You’re screwing with my mind. All of you!” I heard Lucas’ truck pull into the driveway at that moment.

  “Don’t tell him anything,” said Cee Cee.

  “Don’t you think he has a right to know after everything he’s been through?”

  “He can’t know yet. He will soon enough.”

  “You’re all nuts!”

  Lucas knocked on the door as he opened it. “Leigh?” he said and entered. He stopped short, seeing the look on my face. “What’s wrong? Where are the kids?”

  “Upstairs, playing,” said Clothilde.

  He turned to me. “What’s the matter?” I stared at Ben, but he was silent. “Leigh?” Lucas pressed.

  “Lyla is still in danger,” Ben told him.

  Lucas’ face was bitterly angry. “This have something to do with that body we dug up yesterday?”

  “I’m afraid so,” said Ben.

  “Look, Father, I’ve had enough of this. I’ve had to put up with some pretty damned strange things lately, and I’ve been neglecting my son and the highlight was putting my job in jeopardy to desecrate a grave for what I thought was supposed to help my goddaughter, only to find out I burned the wrong body. Now you tell me that it was all pointless.”

  “It wasn’t pointless,” said Ben. “Savoy will come for Lyla.

  “When? Where?” I asked him. “You know everything that’s going to happen. Just tell us so we can prevent it!”

  “Leigh,” warned Clothilde, letting me know that I was getting out of hand. I ignored her.

  “When is it going to happen?” I pressed.

  “Soon, but I don’t know when,” said Ben.

  “Where is he going to take her?”

  “Near water. That’s all I can see.”

  “How can you be so sure?” asked Lucas, raising his voice. I was glad he was angry. I was becoming too mentally exhausted to be angry anymore, so I was all too happy to let him take the wheel.

  “Because I can see the future,” said Ben, cautiously.

  “Well, pardon me, Father, but that sounds like a bunch of bull! If you know the future, then how come we don’t know half of what’s going on? How come we can’t find this guy?”

  Ben remained calm. “I can’t see the future of Les Foncés because they have no future. They are just energy. They have no souls. When he was killed, his human form converted to dark energy.”

  “‘Les’ what?” asked Lucas.

  “We’ll tell you all about that later,” said Cee Cee.

  “How do you know Lyla will be around water?” I asked.

  Ben carefully chose his words before he said them. “Because I can see her there. I just don’t know exactly where yet.”

  I turned to Lucas. “Luke, I’m sorry. It’s all so screwed up! All of it!”

  Ben held up his hand to quiet us. “Be very still. He’s coming soon.”

  “Who?” asked Lucas.

  “Savoy.”

  “Where’s Lyla?” I asked, panicked.

  “Daddy!” cried Jonathan, running into the living room from the direction of the utility room.

  Lucas turned to him, scooping his crying son into his arms. “Where’d you come from? I thought you were upstairs with Lyla.”

  “It’s dying!”

  “What is, baby?”

  “Outside! The bird’s dying! You have to help it, Daddy!”

  “What bird?” I asked, alarmed.

  “There’s a white bird outside with a hurt wing. It was flapping around on the ground, and then it stopped, and it’s just lying there. You have to help it, Daddy. Please!”

  I ran through the utility room and out the back door. I heard Lucas and the rest following me. I swung open the screen door and ran down the steps. I scanned the yard and the garden and there, in the back, by the persimmon trees, was a white dove, lying helplessly on the grass. Lyla’s hands were on it, her eyes closed tight in concentration.

  “Lyla!” I yelled, as I started running towards her as fast as I could. “Get away from it! Don’t touch it!” I could see her open her eyes and tilt her head to the side in confusion. At that second, the bird hopped up, spread its wings and flew up over Lyla’s head. She followed it with her eyes, smiling and laughing, delighted that she could save it.

  “Lyla, come here!” I heard Lucas yell right behind me. His footsteps were in synch with mine, but I was faster. I wasn’t fast enough, though. Lyla stood up and, at that second, the dove turned into a huge black crow. It spread out its wings behind her.