by G A Chase
“The curse doesn’t want to live inside a person. It’s pure energy. You are also made of energy. The two don’t mix. The cane helps you expel the curse like letting blood out of your veins. At first you might feel some discomfort, but soon you’ll feel the relief of letting go.”
He made it sound like a vampire seducing his victim, which didn’t give her comfort. She took the cane and put the skull to her heart. “Let’s just get it over with.”
Myles guided the end to the golden triangle. “If anything goes wonky, I’m pulling this away.”
She nodded and let him proceed. Rather than the cane entering her chest, she felt her heart moving toward the knob. It felt as though miniature slivers of metal had lodged in her chest and the cane was the magnet pulling them out. Baron Samedi had a sadistic definition of discomfort, but painful as the experience was, Kendell remained conscious. She felt Myles tug on the cane, but she shook her head. It was working. There was a light in her heart that had been missing since the day she’d first learned of her connection to Baron Malveaux.
With the last shard of the curse removed, Kendell breathed a little easier. She continued to press the skull against her chest. Anything left behind could too easily regenerate within her. But the evil and desire for vengeance had left.
When the cane became nothing more than a stick with a fancy headpiece, she tossed it aside. “What happens now?”
Baron Samedi took back his cane. “Your connection now fully resides in the golden pick. You are the only one who can access it. Think about Colin, or anyone who’s been affected by the curse, and you’ll receive the information you desire.”
“But the curse itself still exists?”
He tapped the cane against the floor. “All Delphine did was give you control over it. With that command isolated in the pick, and the pick residing in an in-between dimension, no one else can access it. The spell is dormant, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead.”
Kendell knew that was the best she could expect. “And what if Colin manages to make it through the other six gates? Will he gain control over the curse?”
“With you as guardian, he’ll have to face the challenge of self-sacrifice,” Baron Samedi said. “Someone in his position wouldn’t even understand the meaning of the word. Though the totem and pick will look like a trap should he answer wrong, the reality is he’ll have to voluntarily return to the totem with the curse hanging over his head to complete his mission. He’ll have to embrace the judgment for his wrongdoings.”
Myles tapped his foot nervously against the desk. “Wouldn’t that just put him back where we started?”
“Baron Malveaux has lived out his life. Lincoln Laroque accepted the same fate when he ingested the baron and the two beings became one. Their only path forward is to accept death, pass through Guinee, and join the deep waters. By entering the totem, he will begin that process. Though it’s the seventh gate between this hell and your reality, since he’s dead in that realm, it’s actually a one-way ticket to Guinee. By accepting his fate, he will be agreeing to the rules of Guinee.”
Myles didn’t look completely pacified by the answer. “Sanguine talked about consolidating the Malveaux and Laroque greed into one person and then removing that soul from humanity as a way of purifying us all. Was that just bullshit?”
“Human souls are joined together. One cannot be removed, only isolated for a time. By using that time to rehabilitate the individual before returning him to the deep waters, all humanity learns the lesson of a single redemption. Evil isn’t to be removed—it’s to be overcome. All life is about the learning.”
Kendell was trying to get used to handling the totem. As it had no mass, she had to rely on the guitar pick, but having her hand disappear into the wooden sculpture decorated with nails and rough-sewn leather made her feel as though she was putting her hand in the mouth of the beast. “Let’s get over to Scratch and Sniff so I can be done with this thing.”
Back out on the street, Myles helped her into the van. “We’re almost finished.”
She turned to Cheesecake, who kept faithful watch at the front door of the bank. “I’ll be back to get you just as soon as the ceremony is complete.”
As they pulled up to Delphine’s shop, she could feel Myles’s anxiety grow. He’d been held prisoner in the shop, tormented by flames, like a witch burning at the stake.
“You don’t have to come in,” she said. “I need to contact Delphine to make sure we can use her shop, but once that’s done, I’ll just make the veve and we can get out of here.”
“No. If it’s a trap, it would be better for me to spring it. Even with the dogs, Polly, and Lynn keeping an eye on him, I don’t trust that Colin didn’t hide some other booby trap where we wouldn’t expect it. The best place to catch an adversary is somewhere they think they’ve already made safe.”
She hated to admit it, but his reasoning made sense. “We’ll be ready to come save you should your paranoia prove to be right.”
He gave her a kiss before exiting the bus. “Right back at ya.”
She wasn’t crazy about him entering the shop alone. He cautiously pushed the door open and, to her relief, nothing came jumping out after him, but she walked up the stairs to the front porch just to be close. Though they hadn’t been long in the swamp, her eyes had lost the sharp night vision that had developed from spending so much time in the late evening.
“What do you see?” she asked.
“It’s as I left it. Apparently, those fire wraiths only scorch walls if time is moving. It smells a bit of burned sulfur, but otherwise, everything looks okay. Give me a minute to check out the back voodoo library.”
He disappeared behind the black drape that separated the perfume retail store from the back office and hidden alcove filled with voodoo journals.
Each moment he was out of sight made her think it was time to rush in with curses blazing. When the curtains finally parted, she was ready for battle. She looked him up and down as thoroughly as she could in the dim light before letting down her guard. “How was it?”
“The place is a wreck. He cleared out about a quarter of the books. Totems are scattered on the floor. I’m guessing he was searching for anything he could let loose but still control. What he couldn’t use, he tossed on the floor like a petulant child. Nothing attacked me, though.”
Kendell turned to the others. “You two keep watch out here with Myles. Colin is a hell of a lot closer here than when we were in the swamp.”
It wasn’t that she wanted to be alone in the creepy shop, but people and canines had been putting themselves at risk for long enough. She searched among the wreckage left by hurricane Colin. For someone with limited resources, he didn’t seem to appreciate what he had. Even if he couldn’t read the books or control the spirits, leaving them tossed around the floor like a toddler’s toys appeared careless in the extreme. She picked up the first totem and set it back in the display case. There had to be something that would connect her to Delphine. It would be something obvious. As she arranged the books back on the shelves and the wooden sculptures back into the case, she noticed every item, when positioned properly, was facing Delphine’s throne.
Of course, she never performed any magic without first getting comfortable in her chair. Kendell lowered herself onto the throne. She felt like a little kid pretending to be a grown-up by sitting in her father’s favorite chair. “If you’re listening, I need to talk to you.”
The silence was deafening. Sitting in the voodoo priestess’s chair, Kendell realized the problem. She’d been relying on others to do the magic for her. First it was Myles and his psychometric skills of reading past energy in items. Then she’d ridden him like a horse into Guinee and the deep waters. Delphine had taught her well, but Kendell still hung onto her like a child who was too scared to enter kindergarten on her own.
She set the voodoo totem on the table. I can do this.
Using what Myles had taught her, Kendell cleared her mind of all thoughts. Ev
ery bit of magic she’d encountered first required the practitioner to acquire a Zen-like awareness of self and others. Physical space was little more than a representation of spiritual connections. Being in Delphine’s shop was Kendell’s way of acknowledging their connection. Sitting in the priestess’s chair would prove she was no longer the student.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Delphine shimmering in the light of another dimension as she sat in the chair opposite her. “Very good. Now that you’ve conjured me, what do you want?”
Delphine always chose her words carefully. The question wasn’t whether Kendell sought her help, but what Kendell hoped to achieve.
“I’m taking the Wiccan equivalent of Baron Samedi’s position as the final gatekeeper. Should Colin learn enough to pass the other six gates, I’ll hold the key to him rejoining humanity or being cast into a hell only I can open.”
“Yes, but what do you want?”
Kendell wasn’t completely sure she knew the answer. “I want to love others without putting them in danger. Life shouldn’t be about constantly coming to people’s rescue or hoping to be saved by someone I love. Colin and the curse have been like evil shadows that threaten everyone I care about.”
“And by being the seventh guardian, you believe you’ll be free of that menace?”
She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to no longer be looking over her shoulder in fear. “It would isolate him to one window of my life, and for the most part, I could keep that drape closed.”
“You consider me the drape in this scenario?”
Kendell had never been a fan of Myles’s skepticism regarding Delphine, but the voodoo queen wasn’t blameless when it came to the challenges Kendell faced. “You do bear more than a little responsibility regarding the curse, Colin Malveaux, and my connection.”
“I’ll agree to letting you use my shop as your seventh gate. You can rely on me to contact you should he approach my shop in his hell. But as I told you from the beginning, my primary responsibility is to the legacy of Marie Laveau. That doesn’t change.”
With all of the alterations since Marie had first cast the curse, Delphine’s stipulation of honoring her ancestor sounded like a get-out-of-jail-free card for the voodoo madam, but having her stand between Colin’s hell and Kendell’s reality would at least provide the buffer Kendell needed to get on with her life. “I can accept that.”
Delphine fondled the black stone that hung from her necklace. “Have you given any thought to how you’ll get home after this adventure? It sounds like you might be getting close to the end.”
Accepting responsibility for her magic wasn’t going to be easy. “I guess we can’t exactly drive over the bridge at high speed like last time. The cane and silver skull performed perfectly in connecting the two realities, but now that they’re fused together, that’s not going to work for our return. Between the seven of us, four dogs, and help from other dimensions, I can open all seven gates from hell to life. But as gatekeepers, I’m not sure we can hold them open and pass through at the same time.”
“Then you have nothing. Guess I’ll have to get to work.”
Kendell never liked being patronized, and Delphine’s dismissive attitude made her want to discuss a plan she hadn’t been sure about. “An idea keeps occurring to me. The second line to a burial is always somber, but the one leaving the dead and returning to life is always upbeat. I can envision a second line out of hell, but I’d need people on that side to pull it off. Objects are just things. People and love are what really save our souls.”
16
Kendell had been dreading the next step of the plan. She squeezed Myles so tightly she wondered why their two bodies didn’t fuse into one. “This is when things get scary.”
He was never the first to let go of an embrace. His arms around her felt like home. “You can do it. Minerva and Scraper are rounding up Polly and Lynn. They will bring Cheesecake here. Then I can escort the band to the Scratchy Dog. We’ll have each other’s backs, but for good measure, Doughnut Hole will be with me. Cheesecake will stand guard over you. And Muffin Top and Cupcake can watch over Miss Fleur in the convent and Mary across the river. Baron Samedi will be with Serephine and Antoine. Sanguine is far enough away that Colin can’t reach her. We won’t be as exposed as he might think.”
The plan was sound, but that didn’t relieve her apprehension. She only felt safe expressing her fears in his arms. “That doesn’t prevent him from trying.”
He caressed her back the way she did Cheesecake’s when she was afraid. “We can’t plan for every possible attack.”
Reluctantly, Kendell pulled out of his arms. “And the longer we give him, the more chance he has to plan another assault.”
“Everything’s in place. Minerva will be back any minute. Once we have the ceremony behind us, we’ll have accomplished our main goal.”
She’d been careful not to think about home. The distraction of fixating on the finish line had tripped her up more than once. But thoughts of their new apartment, the coffee shop, and playing before an audience again beckoned her onward. “Thanks for believing in me.”
“You started it.”
He always had a way of making her smile.
She heard the underpowered engine of the VW from a block away. “Time to do this thing.”
Though she hated that Myles would be leaving her, seeing Cheesecake’s smiling face, which took up the entire passenger side of the windshield, lightened her mood considerably. She pulled away from Myles and opened the bus door. The wolf jumped out of the van but did a quick reconnaissance of the area before returning for her well-deserved hugs.
“You are such a good girl. I know you’ll protect me.” As strong as the bond was between her and Myles, nothing could compare to the loyalty between a woman and her dog.
* * *
Colin knew the old bus was on its way to pick up the two meddlesome girls and their loathsome hellhounds long before he saw the dim headlights. The rickety sound of the pathetic engine could be heard from a mile away. He didn’t even bother looking down at the reunion below. The bats overhead told him everything he needed to know. Lines of the dark-winged creatures spread across the city like information tentacles. Kendell’s people weren’t all in position yet, but it wouldn’t be long. He’d only have one shot at disrupting her plan.
As the bus drove off, the sky that had been filled with flying rodents cleared to the ever-present night clouds. In the distance, dark lines radiated out from the bank toward the locations of his enemies. Baron Samedi’s involvement was expected, as was the gang’s tactical mistake of pulling in their defenses. He could feel what his eyes confirmed: they’d turned their attention away from him.
As the bats’ formation moved two blocks away from his penthouse, Colin headed for the elevator. Though hell deprived him of time as he’d once understood it, events continued to progress. “No one understands a prison quite as well as an inmate.”
He headed down Canal Street toward the river. For the entire time his realm had been invaded, he’d avoided the abandoned tower near the nonoperational ferry. It was time to call in the favor.
As he approached the World Trade Center, the front door opened on its own. From the outside, the building appeared to be little more than dark, cold concrete and glass, but as he crossed the threshold, overhead florescent lights announced his presence. Unlike every other embassy in hell, this one wasn’t secluded in its private dimension.
Dust on the lock to the guardroom indicated it hadn’t been touched. The blundering kids might have seen fit to ransack his offices, but they hadn’t thought to check out the supposedly neutral repository for paranormal artifacts. Marie’s journals had at least revealed a useful spell for resetting security systems. He punched in the code he’d created.
The guardroom sparked to life as he entered, but all he needed was the duffle bag filled with voodoo totems and journals he’d secured from Delphine’s shop. The security-camera screens confirmed what
he already knew. His bats were forming up along the paranormal energy lines that spread from the bank to the foolish kids’ magical playhouses. So long as the bank with the trapped Baron Samedi was the main focus of the energy, he had time to act.
He picked up the phone and dialed 666. “I’m here. Let me up.”
Out in the lobby, a light came on above the middle elevator. He left the guardroom and did his best to return the lock to its dusty, unused appearance. As he stepped into the ornate lift, he felt an inkling of his former self. This building had never relied on external electricity. Its design, meant to catch the power of passing storms, had enabled it to remain functional even in the make-believe world of the witch.
When the door opened, he didn’t worry about the formality of buzzing the only occupied office in the entire thirty-three-story structure. He pushed open the doors, expecting to see Luther Noire sitting at his desk. In spite of living out his hell alone, Colin was actually surprised the portly man wasn’t where he belonged.
“This is no time for games.” Luther might be a curmudgeon, but money trumped irascibility. The man could damn well show himself to his primary investor. “I’m losing my patience, Luther. You know why I’m here.”
Instead of the man materializing like some apparition, his voice came across the intercom on the desk. “I told you, there aren’t any artifacts that can make the leap from life to hell.”
“Bullshit. Your little trinkets aren’t even in the land of the living. We both know you’ve got a hidden dimension. New Orleans Bank and Trust has been funding your little experiment since before the War Between the States. I know. I was there. I’m calling in the loan.”
“Now I’m calling bullshit. If it hadn’t been for my predecessor, you would have never laid your hands on Samedi’s cane. I’d say you made out pretty well on the deal.”
Colin knew the voice over the intercom wouldn’t sound so bold if Luther were there in person, but the argument from afar wasn’t getting him anywhere, and he didn’t have time for the debate. “See how well you do without me in the land of the living. Do you honestly believe my mother is going to continue this philanthropic activity without my influence?”