The Dragon of New Orleans

by Genevieve Jack

  “I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather die than in your arms,” he said.

  “Don’t talk like that. I can’t stand it.”

  He rubbed his chin. “I think that dress is missing something.” He drew a box from the seat beside him. The oreads had provided her with a necklace, a teardrop pendant the same teal as the dress. She wondered what Gabriel had in store for her.

  He opened the box. An emerald ring glinted up at her, the same shape as Gabriel’s but slightly smaller.

  “Oh Gabriel, it’s lovely. It matches yours.”

  “And your dress.”

  “Put it on.” She held out her hand.

  “Wait, this ring comes with a question, and your answer determines how long you get to keep it.”

  “Keep it? I can’t keep it. It must be worth tens of thousands of dollars.”

  “Raven, when I fed you my tooth, I was looking for an employee, someone I could compel to do my bidding and break this curse. What I got was so much more.”

  “I wish I could have been what you wanted. I wish I could have fixed what was broken for you.”

  “But you did. You fixed me. My heart.”

  Oh Gabriel. Her eyes stung.

  “After watching my uncle kill Marius, I never thought I’d experience family again, or bond with someone in a way that was stronger than fear, stronger than death. All I wanted was an escape from the horrors I’d left behind in Paragon. I wanted to build an oasis here. I was happy alone. No one here could ever be like me, and there was no one I could trust who wasn’t bound to me.”

  “After meeting your mother and uncle, I can understand why you’d feel that way.”

  “But then there was you. I tried to bind you, but you would not be bound. And that forced me to trust you. I had to trust you because I could not force you. You are here now because you want to be here, because you care for me. You were willing to die for me.”

  “I love you, Gabriel. You did more than heal me; you gave me a purpose and a reason to survive. I can’t say I haven’t been terrified these past few weeks. But when I was lying in my hospital bed, I begged God to either let me live or let me die. No more in between. No more half-life. I’ve never felt more alive than when I’m with you.”

  “Love is a human word. Dragons mate, they bond. I wasn’t sure I understood the meaning of the word until now. I love you.”

  She shifted closer to him, wanting a kiss but too afraid of the consequences to actually touch him.

  “You said you had a question.”

  “Should I put this on your finger for a night or put in on for a lifetime?”

  “I don’t understand. What are you asking me?”

  “Marry me, Raven. Take this emerald as a symbol of my eternal affection for you. An engagement gift.”

  “You want to marry me?” All the oxygen had been sucked from the car, and suddenly the air was close and hot.

  He raised an eyebrow. “It may be a short commitment, but it would mean everything to me to know that even for a moment, you were mine in this human way.”

  “I am yours. And you are mine. We don’t need a piece of jewelry or a piece of paper for that.”

  “I want to marry you, Raven.” He shook the box between them. “For the night or for forever?”

  She held out her hand and answered directly from her heart. “Forever then.”

  The cold stone slid onto her finger. Unable to hold herself back, she eased herself into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Tell me if you feel anything and I’ll stop.”

  “I feel something,” he mumbled into her lips. The kiss was deep, and he stroked his tongue along hers. He touched her knee and worked his hand up her inner thigh. She could feel him harden under her, and then she felt something else; a tingle danced across the surface of her skin.

  With both hands, she pushed him away, panting. Gabriel’s eyes were wide with fear and yearning. Raven wondered if hers were as well, a mirror of his own, or if there was more there: disappointment that she couldn’t block it from happening, utter sadness that the last days they might ever have together would have to be spent at a distance.

  As the car began to slow, Raven wiped a tear. Gabriel reached up and thumbed another from under her eye. “Don’t cry. It doesn’t matter, Raven. Being near you. Having your love. It’s enough.”

  She ground her teeth. Hate was not a strong enough word for what she felt toward Crimson. “For now.”

  Duncan opened the door, and Raven slid across the seat to take his hand and allow him to help her from the car. Gabriel emerged behind her. He offered her his arm, and she hooked her gloved fingers above his elbow.

  “Let’s do this,” he said into her ear.

  They entered the masquerade ball together, knowing they were walking directly into the web of the enemy.

  The stench that filled Gabriel’s nose as they stepped into the crowded ballroom was unmistakably Crimson. Under the scent of perfume and silk, of hairspray and feathers and nail polish and men’s aftershave, he could smell the medicinal sewage that he’d come to associate with her and her magic. It turned his stomach.

  “I smell her too,” Raven said.

  “I’m sure she knows we’re here.”

  They entered a sea of ball gowns and masked faces. Above them, aerial acrobats performed for the crowd’s entertainment. A woman dressed as a bird hung upside down from a hoop by her feet, reaching for them as they passed beneath her. Across the room, a man danced on a platform with a mammoth yellow boa constrictor wrapped around his body. Scantily dressed servers with trays of drinks and canapés balanced on their hands navigated the crowd.

  “There. The black and red.” Raven pointed.

  Gabriel spotted Crimson, the devil in a red bustier and yards and yards of black lace. Horns protruded from either side of her mask, and the staff in her hand was topped with a realistic-looking skull.

  “She’s not subtle is she?” Raven moved closer to him.

  “No.”

  Crimson crossed toward them, weaving through the other guests as a widening smile spread across her lips.

  “You received my invitation,” she said to Raven. “And as I suspected, Gabriel did too.”

  “Where’s Agnes?” Gabriel asked.

  “Safe. Although her accommodations are uncomfortable. They will become more so if you are disagreeable.”

  “What do you want from us?” A low growl rumbled in his chest.

  “Straight to the formalities. I’d expect nothing less from you, dragon.” She walked between them, causing Raven to stagger back. “Follow me. It’s time we talked.”

  Crimson led them deeper into the hotel, down the hall to an empty conference room. She flipped on the overhead lights. The taupe walls were jarringly bland compared to the colors of the ballroom they’d just come from.

  “Tell us why we’re here, Crimson.” Gabriel tucked Raven into his side.

  Crimson ran her fingers over the skull that topped her staff. “You’re almost out of time, dragon. In less than seventy-two hours, the magic of your ring will be depleted and you will die, unless you take me to your bed.”

  “And I’ve told you no,” he said. “The thought sickens me.”

  “Yes,” she drawled. “You’ve made that blatantly clear.” She paced around the conference table, her red nails dragging along the surface. “And while I could force you, I have discovered another option that is more palatable to me.”

  Raven shifted beside him. Her gaze darted between him and Crimson as if she might say something. He shook his head.

  “What if all you had to do was make love to our lovely Raven here?”

  Gabriel’s brows dipped. “What are you saying?”

  “If sex with me doesn’t appeal to you, have sex with her. All I’m interested in is the outcome.”

  “The outcome.”

  Crimson faced him, spread her feet, and planted both hands on top of the skull of her staff. “I want your firstborn.”

&nb
sp; A ball of ice exploded next to Crimson’s head. Gabriel turned to see Raven glowing like a star with snow falling around her, turning to hail. He noticed none of it landed on him.

  “How dare you even suggest such a thing, you evil gargoyle of a woman?” Raven spat.

  “Oh Ravenna, calm down. If you accept my offer and give me your firstborn, you’ll have an eternity with your dragon to bear as many more of his brats as you wish. I only need one.”

  “Why?” Gabriel asked.

  “You know why.” Crimson began to pace again, licking her ruby lips as if she were hungry. “The child of a dragon and a demigoddess will possess almost unlimited power. Even a drop of blood from such an offspring could level mountains in the right hands.”

  Raven scoffed. “Demigoddess?”

  “As a descendant of Circe, powerful indeed.”

  Gabriel’s eyes widened.

  “You didn’t think I’d figure it out? The Three Sisters, the Tanglewood name. You are an old dragon, Gabriel. You must have noted the resemblance.”

  “What’s she talking about?”

  “He knew you might be a descendant of Circe when he fed you his tooth, dear. You were a long shot, of course. Except you look just like the Circe we both knew. She was the granddaughter of the goddess herself and an accomplished sorceress. Ask Gabriel. He knew her, three hundred years ago, when they burned her at the stake.”

  “What?” Raven looked at him in confusion.

  “It’s true that I knew a demigoddess named Circe and I was there when she burned. But she’s lying about the rest. I did not know you were a descendant.”

  “Oh Gabriel, how could you not? Look at her. Those eyes. Do you know what I think? I think you bound her, you seduced her, you mated her, all for the chance that if she could not save you, a child might.” Crimson flashed a smile nothing short of evil.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Raven looked betrayed.

  “I never suspected, Raven. Not until the Casket Girls.”

  Crimson laughed. “It’s forbidden for a dragon to mate with a witch, you know, where he comes from. Gabriel made sure I knew that, time and time again. It’s too powerful a pairing. But it can be yours, Raven, for the cost of your firstborn child.”

  Raven scoffed. “You never wanted Gabriel at all, did you? It’s always been about a baby, about the blood. Sex with him might give you power for a short time, but a child—you want to use our child as your own personal power bank.”

  “Smart girl. I’m doing you a favor. Carrying this child will enhance your power considerably.”

  “And then you will rip him or her from my arms. How powerful will I feel then?” Raven said through her teeth.

  Gabriel slapped a hand down on the table, cracking the wood. “Crimson, I am not giving you our child.”

  Raven raised her voice. “Gabriel, we’re out of time. We have no choice and she knows it.” He looked at her in horror. She turned back to Crimson. “It will take time to get pregnant. Lift the curse now to give us time to be together.”

  Gabriel shook his head. What was she saying?

  “Are you agreeing?” Crimson asked through a wolfish grin.

  “I am asking you to lift the curse. Then we can talk.”

  Crimson laughed. “There’s no need to lift the curse, dear. I have a spell that will ensure the pregnancy takes place at your next joining.”

  “I won’t do it unless you lift the curse first and free Agnes.”

  “But you will do it. An agreement between witches is binding. I will do as you ask once you agree.”

  Gabriel grabbed her hand, “No. No, Raven. Don’t.”

  Raven glanced at him and then at Crimson. “I’ll do it.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Raven hated the expression of betrayal on Gabriel’s face. He was deathly silent beside her, as he was through the entire car ride. Raw meat to the lion’s den, that was what he must think. But there was no time to explain why she’d accepted the proposal. Crimson would never succeed in stripping her of her baby for one simple reason; Raven was barren.

  It was something she’d planned on telling Gabriel eventually, something only four people in the world knew. The chemo had fried her internal organs. Her ovaries were dead. She hadn’t had a period in years. Nothing Crimson did could make her pregnant. But Crimson didn’t know that, and if Raven played her cards right, she would get her to break the curse and then absorb enough of her magic to keep her from cursing him again when she found out the truth.

  They entered Hexpectations, and as before, Raven barely detected a trickle of magic. She strolled past the shelves of prepared oils and gris-gris without a single tingle across her skin. All of it fake. All of it useless. Crimson called herself a mambo, but it wasn’t voodoo she practiced. Raven knew voodoo from the grimoires in Gabriel’s library. Crimson practiced a unique and personal form of magic. That was why Raven could not solve the problem of Gabriel’s ring. Only the venom of the snake that bit him could bring about the cure.

  At the back of the shop, Crimson paused at the great wooden door Raven had noticed before. There was a ram’s skull positioned over it and more carvings than she could take in decorating its surface. Crimson whirled, her staff striking the floor between them.

  “Do you know this symbol, witch?” she asked, pointing at a pattern at the center of the door.

  “That is the symbol of Papa Legba, the spirit of the crossroads.” All at once the tingle of close magic Raven had missed at the front of the shop buzzed across her skin, seeming to twist off the door and curl against her.

  “Why don’t you do the honors?” Crimson gestured toward the door with an upturned palm.

  “You want me to invoke the deity?” Raven asked, perplexed. “Why? If this is your sacred space, you should open the way.”

  A threatening growl rumbled from Gabriel’s chest. “I do not like this game you are playing, Crimson. Is your offer genuine, or is this some kind of trick?”

  Crimson pounded her staff against the floor and bared her teeth. “There is no trick, dragon, but I will not be taken advantage of. Your witch has asked me to lift the curse before she does the deed. I need some insurance. If she invokes Papa Legba, it will be her magic holding open the threshold between the spirit world and our own. She’ll have skin in the game. It shows me she is serious about our agreement.”

  “It also weakens her,” Gabriel growled.

  Raven placed a hand on his shoulder. “I will do it.”

  His dark eyes conveyed nothing short of torture. “It’s a trap,” he whispered. She was sure Crimson heard.

  “It’s for the best,” Raven said. She believed it. There was nothing she wouldn’t sacrifice to save him. Nothing.

  All she had to do was look at the symbol and the incantation came to her. Absorbed from a book and lingering unnoticed in her psyche, it now swam to the surface. She knocked three times on the symbol. “Open the road, open the door, open the gate. We wish to come home, Papa.”

  On the other side, a heavy thud rattled the wood. Dust billowed through the crack under the door. The lock rattled, and then the hinges squealed as the wood behemoth swung open. The tingle of magic multiplied until her entire body buzzed. The room beyond the door was something else, somewhere else. This was not only a voodoo temple; it was a spiritual realm. The air was magic, the floor was magic, the walls were magic. Raven trembled. If she absorbed too much as she had in Paragon, she’d be doomed.

  “Are you waiting for an invitation? Come into my temple, lovers.”

  Raven did as asked and was aware of Gabriel stepping in behind her, his energy like a flickering candle in this place. She reached for him, tangling her fingers with his. The door closed behind them.

  Immediately she felt sick. This was no ordinary temple. She noticed now that what she thought had been meat and herbs hanging along the far wall was a much grislier display. Intestines, a set of eyeballs, a dried hand that might have been a monkey’s or a child’s. There was a jar f
illed with maggots, and another with something misshapen and pale gray floating in a green liquid.

  The symbol for fertility was painted in blood on the floor. Crimson had made offerings around the symbol: a basket of eggs, a bowl of exotic fruit, a silver platter covered in flowers. The entire thing was ringed in red and white candles.

  “Enter the symbol. The time is right to begin,” Crimson said.

  “First lift the curse,” Raven demanded.

  “Step inside the circle and I will.”

  “I need a token of your commitment. Free Agnes,” Raven pleaded.

  Crimson sighed. “Fair enough.” She waved her staff and the far wall dissolved. It was just an illusion. Behind where it had been, Agnes was chained to a brick wall. The old woman drooped from her shackles, bloody and unconscious. Crimson snapped her fingers and the shackles gave way. Gabriel raced to Agnes and caught her before her head hit the floor.

  Agnes roused, blinking up at Gabriel. “I knew you’d come,” she said. “Don’t give her what she wants.”

  “You have to make it to the front of the store,” he said to her. “Duncan is waiting. Go.”

  Agnes glanced at Raven, who gave her a firm nod. They helped her to the door. Raven saw her limp toward the exit as the passageway closed between them.

  “Now you have your token of good faith. Get on with it. Enter the symbol,” Crimson said.

  Raven stepped over the burning candles, taking her place at the center of the ring of blood. Gabriel did not follow. “I will kill you for this,” he said to Crimson. “From this life or the next, you will never rest, you will never be at peace.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself, dragon. Enter the circle and I will lift the curse.”

  Raven met his gaze and held it. Trust me, she mouthed silently.

  He stepped in beside Raven, taking her hand. Crimson raised her staff and repeated a string of guttural syllables. There was a flash of light, and then Gabriel’s emerald ring blazed to new life. She breathed a sigh of relief.

  “The spell is broken,” Raven said.

  “I’ve upheld my end of the bargain; now it is your turn,” Crimson said.