The Dragon of New Orleans

by Genevieve Jack

  A few minutes later, she found what she was looking for. The wooden sign for Hexpectations had a painting of a voodoo doll with a pin through its heart. Nice.

  She paused a few doors down from the shop. It was well known that Crimson owned the place. She ran local advertising for her touristy voodoo-ritual gigs. It was very possible that Raven would see her behind the counter when she walked in. Crimson knew who she was, even if she didn’t know what she was. She might be opening a can of worms doing this, but if she could touch anything in the store with Crimson’s magic in it, she might be able to absorb it and use it to help Gabriel. She had to give it a try.

  Tucking her hair behind her ears, she steeled her resolve and went in. A bell chimed over the door, and a strong herbal scent met her as she crossed the threshold. It smelled like a combination of eucalyptus, peppermint, and something sour, almost as if Crimson was trying to cover up the smell of sour milk with essential oils.

  Thankfully, she was not alone in the store. A group of Japanese tourists, five men and two women, laughed and talked near the cash register. Raven played with a crystal in a bin near the door while nonchalantly glancing toward the cashier out the corner of her eye. A goth-looking teenaged girl with a septum piercing leaned against the back counter. She snapped her chewing gum and stared at her phone.

  No Crimson. Raven relaxed a little. None of the crystals were giving her a hint of magic. She walked down the aisle, randomly picking up items. She touched gris-gris and mojo bags, dolls, herbs, candles, books. Up and down each row, she examined the items for sale. Nothing spoke to her. There were no tingles. Her skin did not glow under her sweater. There was no change in the air or the temperature.

  How could this be? Crimson’s shop was a magical dud. How could the voodoo queen of New Orleans not leave a trail of magic in her own shop?

  “Can I help you find anything?” the goth girl asked, looking annoyed. The Japanese tourists had left, and now Raven was the only one there. The girl probably thought she was planning to steal something.

  “Do you sell daggers, like the kind you use for root work?”

  “Uh, the owner might keep some in the back room, but it’s locked when she’s not here.” The girl pointed at a door behind the register. The heavy panel of wood was covered in symbols and surrounded by dried herbs. Raven concentrated on the door, and for a moment, she thought she could hear it whisper to her. She considered rushing past the girl and touching it, but honestly, she wasn’t going to get answers from a locked door.

  “Are you not allowed in there?” she asked.

  “No one is allowed in there but the priestess herself.”

  “What about the priestess herself?”

  Raven whirled to find Crimson standing behind her. Her ample bosom and flowing skirt seemed to fill the aisle, and Raven suddenly felt boxed in.

  “She was looking for an athame,” the goth girl said.

  Crimson’s gaze never wavered from Raven. “You’re Gabriel’s new girl.”

  Raven forced down her fear and held out her hand. “Yes, I am. You must be Crimson.” Her voice was high and soft, not a hint of suspicion or animosity. Would Crimson fall for it?

  “Aren’t you a sweet thing?” Crimson shook her hand, smiling a wicked smile.

  Raven waited for Crimson’s magic to send tingles into her hand. Instead, her palm went cold. Crimson was like a vacuum. There was no magic in her, just darkness. Emptiness. A vast and awful absence of energy. Raven had never realized how full of life everyone else was until she touched the thing that was Crimson.

  “Nice to meet you,” Raven murmured.

  Crimson showed her teeth. “Come to the back room and we’ll select an athame just for you.” Her voice was syrupy and came out through a plastic smile.

  Raven retracted her hand. “No, thank you. I’ve changed my mind.” Her heart was hammering now.

  Crimson’s eyes turned hard and cold. “Lost your nerve, witch?”

  Raven took a step back.

  “That is why you need an athame, isn’t it? You’re a witch.”

  “So?” Another step back. She bumped into the goth woman who snapped her gum.

  “You’ll never break my curse, Raven. Tell your master to give me what I want.”

  “No.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “He might do it in exchange for you.” Crimson reached for her.

  Everything slowed, becoming crystal clear. Crimson’s hands reached for her. Raven’s heart sped up to the point that her chest hurt. There was a moment of darkness when she thought she had passed out, a dropping sensation as if she’d jumped off a tall building. And then she landed on her feet behind Crimson, magic curling around her like smoke before it vanished like a snuffed candle.

  She moved for the door, her limbs feeling oddly elastic. It chimed when she opened it. Crimson whirled. Their eyes met. Raven bolted into the crowd on the sidewalk.

  Gabriel was waiting for her when she walked into Blakemore’s. He looked like hell. Wherever he went in the afternoons really did a number on him. Had he been sleeping on the curb of an underpass?

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  His face contorted, eyebrows becoming dark slashes, his jaw painfully tight. “Are you done trying to tear my heart from my chest, Raven? At least for the day?” His voice was too low, too steady.

  “I… yes.”

  He turned on his heel and disappeared through the double glass doors at the back of the store.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gabriel didn’t show himself again until the next afternoon, and by the stony expression he wore, Raven knew he was still angry.

  “I said I was sorry,” she repeated.

  He paced toward the window in the library, running his fingers along the frame and gazing out over Royal Street. “Dragons collect things, Raven. It’s in our nature. The more valuable the possession, the more closely we guard it.”

  “I’m not your possession. You don’t own me. You can’t buy me. I’m a human being.”

  “No. No, I can’t. I can’t even bind you. With one thought, I could call Agnes and Richard to my side. They’d come running. I can’t call you. I can’t tell where you are.”

  “Good.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Frankly, it’s creepy you can do that to anyone with or without their permission. I’m a free woman, Gabriel. I’m here because I want to be here. I want to help. But I’m not a thing to be hoarded or protected.”

  He looked at her over his shoulder, the light from the window framing a stunningly attractive profile. She tangled her fingers over her stomach.

  “Do you know what part of the bond remains?” he asked softly. “It was the way I found you, both on the day you were attacked in the alley and in the swamp.”

  Raven licked her lips. “You mentioned before something about my fear.”

  He nodded. “Yes. Your fear. It cuts through me like a knife. I cannot rest. I cannot think.” He stepped closer to her, desperation leaching from him. Her chest was heavy with the weight of the emotion building in the room. “Don’t you see how much I care for you? Have I ever treated you like a possession, even though it is in my nature to do so? Have I ever hurt you?”

  She thought about it. “No.”

  “Then stop hurting me.”

  “I have never intentionally hurt you, Gabriel.”

  He winced. “Your fear feels like being shredded with razor blades. It feels like taking a stroll through a blender.”

  Raven’s hands pressed into her stomach. “I am sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “Please, Raven, for your sake as well as mine, be more careful.”

  She moved toward him and placed her hand on his cheek. The idea that he’d felt shredded by her fear made her feel absolutely wretched. She wouldn’t be his prisoner, but she also refused to be his torturer. “I will be more careful. I am sorry.”

  He nodded. “Thank you.”

  “There’s something I have to tell you about yesterday, about where
I went and what I found out.”

  He leaned on the library desk, his hands coupled near his waist. “Please, tell me why you were frightened for your life… again.”

  Okay, a little more attitude in that comment than necessary. “I went to see Crimson.”

  Gabriel stood and whirled like he was searching for something or someone to break. “Why?”

  “I wanted to try to absorb her magic. I thought if I could get a taste of what she was, I might be able to reproduce it, take it apart, and use the pieces to break your curse.”

  “What happened?”

  “There is nothing magical in her shop. Not a single thing. I think she keeps anything with any power behind an enchanted door in the back. But she was there, Gabriel, and when I touched her, I felt null energy.”

  “Null energy?”

  “I don’t have another word for it. I felt like there was something in her that ate magic. I couldn’t absorb it because there wasn’t anything there to absorb. There was just this gnawing, black, perpetually hungry thing inside her that wanted to destroy everything. All it wants is darkness. There’s just… nothing.”

  His face turned grim. “That’s unfortunate.”

  “There must be some way to undo what she’s done. If you gave her what she wanted, she’d undo the curse, right? Pull that darkness back into herself? She wants you. She wouldn’t end you on purpose.”

  “It seems so.”

  “We just have to think of another way.”

  His fingers began to tap against his thigh and she took a step closer and gathered his hand in hers. The tapping eased.

  “You’re the only thing that helps,” he said. His full, focused attention made her feel like the center of the universe. The symbols on her arms began to glow.

  “We will find another way, Gabriel. I know how you’re feeling. I know what it’s like to be out of time and staring death in the face. I can sense your despair, the way you want to shed this curse like a chain and take your life back. When I was sick, I wanted to blow out the walls. I wanted freedom so badly I would have chewed my own arm off to get it. But you saved me from that, and now I will save you from this. I will find a way, even if I have to go to Paragon myself and forge you a new ring.”

  He touched her forehead with his lips. “Thank you, Raven. Thank you.”

  The next afternoon, Gabriel brought her a gift. The box was wrapped in shiny black paper with a gold bow. She opened it to find a length of knotted rope.

  “My birthday isn’t until April. What did I do to deserve a frayed length of knotted rope?”

  “You became a witch,” he said. “I made this for you to practice with. Untie it. I’ll tell you in advance that these knots are not the kind you learn to tie in the Boy Scouts. I’ve magically bound each one with increasingly more difficult spells. Only an expert at countering magic can untie all six. You will have to examine the knot to determine which spell I’ve placed on it, then find the counterspell in your internal arsenal or in these grimoires. Then you will have to apply that counterspell to the knots.”

  “Ha ha, very funny.” Raven examined the knots. “Was wrapping this like a gift supposed to make me feel excited about spending my days untying knots?”

  “You can take them home with you to practice.”

  Raven tried not to look disappointed, but she’d gotten excited when she saw the wrapped box. This was not the gift she’d had in mind. It was also not the practice she’d had in mind. When Gabriel said he’d work with her, she expected one-on-one interaction, not a take-home test. She picked up the rope.

  “I won’t be in tomorrow,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “There’s something I need to take care of.”

  “That’s not vague or anything.”

  He approached her, his power bumping into her before he did. She was so much more attuned to it now. It licked her body like a thousand tongues of fire, not an unpleasant experience. She moved closer until there was less than an inch between them and his heat practically enveloped her.

  “If I tell you something, will you keep it to yourself?”

  “Of course I will,” Raven said. Now she was concerned.

  “I’m going to see a lawyer. If we can’t fix this, I want my affairs to be in order.”

  She chewed her lip. “We’re going to fix this, Gabriel. We will.”

  The smile he gave her was sexy enough to melt her dress. “I hope you’re right. Spending more time with you once we’ve put this Kristina mess behind us is definitely on my priority list.”

  Yes, Kristina, Raven reminded herself. It was getting harder and harder for her to remember to be cautious with Gabriel. He kissed her gently on the cheek, then left the room before she could take her next breath.

  The days that followed moved quickly. Raven absorbed book after book. Once she finished the voodoo section, she was able to untie the first three knots, but nothing she’d absorbed helped her sort out her feelings for Gabriel. By the time Friday rolled around, she had one last practice knot left to be untied and an awkward date with Gabriel to look forward to.

  He arrived as he had every other afternoon, just before five. “Duncan is waiting downstairs.”

  She stood from the desk and tossed the length of rope into her purse. “I’m ready.”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He held out a shopping bag to her. “You’ll want this for where we’re going. You can change in my apartment.”

  “Where are we going?”

  He gave her a slanted grin. “Change. I’ll meet you downstairs.” He opened the door to his home for her, and she made her way to his bedroom before opening the bag. It was a dress. Well, part of a dress. The actual amount of material seemed a yard shy of a full garment. It was royal blue, sleeveless, and had leather trim along the neck, crisscrossing over the waist and along the hem. He’d included a black lace bra and panties, which was a good thing, because the ones she’d worn to work that day would have shown. Still, she was sure she didn’t have the boobs to fill the thing out. She slid the expensive fabric over her skin, noticing the way the material skimmed her body. This was the difference between being rich and being middle class. Raven didn’t own a single piece of clothing this perfectly made.

  For a second, she felt guilty about accepting the gift. Then she decided it wasn’t necessarily a gift. She could give it back tomorrow. And this was work related. Tonight she would learn what had happened to Kristina, and perhaps she could use that information in some way to advance her understanding of magic. Besides, if she succeeded in breaking Gabriel’s curse, she would have earned the cost of the dress five hundred times over.

  She smoothed the fabric and looked at herself in the mirror. The dress fit perfectly, almost as if it were made for her. She’d put on some badly needed weight since she started at Blakemore’s, which helped, plus the dress was cut to flatter, cinching in her waist and giving her chest some lift. Gabriel had included a pair of strappy high-heeled booties that made her legs appear longer than they were.

  Turning in front of the mirror, she had to admit the look was flattering on her. She wondered how he’d managed. She freshened her makeup and brushed her dark hair. Was it just her, or had it grown out significantly? It was almost down to her shoulders now. By the time she finished primping, she felt sexy and sophisticated, although she wasn’t completely sure she could pull the look off. Wherever Gabriel was taking her must be upscale. She hoped she’d fit in.

  She slung her purse over her shoulder and strode out of the apartment. Gabriel hadn’t left her the key, but the door locked behind her. The oreads, she thought. Carefully balanced on the unfamiliar heels, she descended the stairs.

  “Sweet child of mercy, you look hot,” Richard said, snapping his fingers and throwing back his head. “Mmm-hmm, that dragon is going to burn up when he sees you, miss thing.”

  “I must agree,” Agnes chimed in. “The dress suits you.”

 
She thanked them both before stepping out the door.

  Gabriel was waiting, leaning against the car in a pair of jeans and a black button-down that made his eyes look even darker than usual. He scanned her from head to toe, then pushed off the car to meet her on the sidewalk. A deep rumble met her ears. Gabriel’s purr. “You look enchanting,” he whispered in her ear. “I think that’s the appropriate compliment for a witch, don’t you?”

  He opened the car door and helped her inside, then rounded the back to slide in beside her. Duncan pulled into traffic.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I wouldn’t dream of ruining the surprise.”

  “Now you’re just being annoying.”

  “It’s one of my better qualities.” He inched closer to her until the outer edge of his pinky finger grazed her thigh just below the hem of her short dress. That touch might as well have been a blowtorch for how it made her blood pump.

  “I’ve almost solved the knots,” she said, glancing at Duncan. The man had both eyes on the road. Thank heaven for small favors. She was sure she was blushing, and although he couldn’t see it from the outside, her need made her feel like she was wearing a neon sign. She wanted sex, wanted Gabriel so badly that her body felt like a raw nerve.

  “You’ve come a long way in a week.” Gabriel seemed to read her mind. He pressed the button for the privacy divider.

  “You didn’t make it easy for me. The first one was about applying the right force, simple enough. But the second one required heat to loosen the bond. For the third knot, it was necessary for me to lengthen the rope, the fourth to shrink the binding agent holding it together, and the fifth… the fifth one was very tricky.”

  “You figured it out.”

  “Barely. It was an illusion. A very good one. I tried for over a day to untie a knot that wasn’t really there. All I had to do was destroy the artifice and I had it.”

  “What do you make of the last one?”

  “I’m not sure yet. I think it has something to do with focusing energy though.”