by E G Bateman
“And the compulsion to do what she says,” he continued. “It’s relentless.”
“Compulsion?” Lexi thought for a moment and listened to Delphine’s ceaseless speech. “I don’t get that. Only the irritating chatter.”
Dick touched her shoulder. She turned to look at him and he stepped back with shock on his face. “Lexi, your eyes.”
In that moment, she knew her eyes were black, but she couldn’t say how she knew.
She drew her arm up to backhand him. But while her attention was diverted, Lorenzo ripped the ring from her finger and threw it across the room.
Lexi turned slowly to look at him. The expression on his face gave her pause. She tilted her head as though a different angle might give her a new perspective on this cockroach in her hand. Finally, she decided he looked confused. “Not what you expected?” she asked, conversationally. “But thank you. She was annoying.”
Before he could answer, she snapped his neck with a twist of her wrist and let him fall.
Her eyes were still black. She looked at the scar and noticed that it was filled with what looked like shiny, wet, black tar.
Scott entered the room, paused, and stared at her in horror. She shook her head before her eyes became soft, brown, and desperate.
A voice that wasn’t her own or Delphine’s spoke from her mouth. “She needs your magic, boy. I can’t hold her except for a few seconds.”
He raced to her, grasped both her arms, and began to push his magic through the blood bond and into her.
Her eyes went black again and she snarled and fought. He tried to take her power away and she knew she had the power to strike him and kill him, but something stopped her.
“I’ll kill you,” Lexi screamed.
The young sorcerer gritted his teeth and hung on.
Dick scrambled to his feet behind her, wound his arms around her, and pinned the tops of her arms to her sides.
Scott looked frantically from one hand to the other. “Where’s the ring?”
“It’s over there on the floor.” The vampire gestured with his head.
The other man’s eyes widened. “How can the ring do this from over there?”
A hand settled on her head and she twisted to see that Anne had arrived with James and Sam.
The witch removed her hand abruptly. “This isn’t the ring. It’s something else.”
“Help us, please,” Scott cried.
They encircled Lexi, Scott, and Dick.
Anne began to chant. “Banish the negative harm and pain, only positive shall remain.”
James and Sam took up the chant. A breeze lifted around them and grew in intensity until finally, the black-painted windows in Lorenzo’s apartment exploded and the wind howled away.
Lexi felt the strength leave her body. She slumped, almost unconscious. As if from a distance, she watched as her scar filled with white energy before her eyes closed.
When she woke again, she knew they were back to normal but something was different. She looked around the room. Scott’s bed was empty and she was still in her clothes.
Whispered snatches of conversation drifted to her. “But she didn’t even have the ring on at that point.”
Lexi felt wiped out. She sat, gave it a few seconds, then stood and walked up the hallway.
When she rounded the corner into the room, Dick held Marcel up and waved his little paw at her. “Anne’s asking about the day-walking thing.” He turned to the woman. “Lexi knows. She was there in Chicago when a witch threw a spell pouch that exploded all over me. I spent a night paralyzed and now, I can walk in the daylight.”
Joseph nodded. “I can confirm that every word he speaks is truth.”
She almost snorted at the Joseph-stamp-of-approval. Every word was true, but Dick had woven together three barely connected incidents. She glanced around. No one seemed inclined to call him a liar and she wouldn’t say anything. If it ever got back to Kindred that Scott had done this for him, he’d be sentenced to death—or, at the very least, life in The Hollows.
Anne shuffled to the edge of her seat. “What was in the pouch?”
Lexi was surprised she hadn’t taken a notepad and pen out.
The vampire opened his arms, his palms up, in an exaggerated shrug. “I have no idea. I wasn’t able to get the muck out of the fabric. By the time I knew I’d be able to sunbathe in the South of France again, the suit had been discarded.”
The woman sat back muttering, “I wonder what it was.”
It was Geraldine’s turn to lean forward. “So you didn’t need to crawl into my father’s tomb.”
Dick winced. “Ah! No, I’m afraid not.”
“Well, I hope that ruined another suit. You deserve it.” She scowled at him.
The vampire put his hand over hers. “I apologize unreservedly.”
Geraldine looked at his hand, then at him with an eyebrow raised. “And making poor Betsy climb in there with you. You’re a very bad man.”
Scott passed a cup of coffee to Lexi. She glanced quickly at him but had to look away. The desire she had felt to kill him was still fresh in her mind and she felt ashamed. The worst thing was that he would have felt her feelings through the blood bond—the murder and the shame. She focused instead on Geraldine. “You’re looking well.”
The shifter smiled at Scott. “Well, your man here is quite the physician. It’s not a cure but I think he might have given me another year or two.”
Anne stood and looked down at her. “I might have a few things to give you another year on top of that. Visit me at the shop.”
Geraldine stood. “I’ll walk out with you.”
The two women said their goodbyes and left.
Lexi removed Marie Laveau’s ring and handed it to Joseph. “Did you get the other ring?”
“Yes. I will put the spirit within it to rest.”
She turned to Broullard. “Detective—”
“I think you can call me Charles.” He smiled.
“You never mentioned that Alice is a police officer. Why not?”
“Ah! Well, the simple answer is that she kind of is and kind of isn’t a police officer.”
“That’s the simple answer?” She frowned at him.
“She used to be a uniform but was posted to what most officers call the Special Ops team.”
Lexi was familiar with the process of Kindred legacies joining the police force to work on supernatural cases, keeping the details off the official books.
He cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. “Whatever you say she is, I’ve known her for years—not well but well enough. I felt protective of her and feared you meant to harm her. We look after our own.”
She sighed. “I don’t mean her any harm. What would be the point?”
Peter walked in from Dick’s apartment. “The popcorn’s popped and the movie’s ready to go.”
“Excellent.” The vampire picked Marcel up and turned to the detective. “Charles, would you like to come and see one of my movies?”
“I’d love to, thank you.” Broullard said good evening and followed them to the door.
“It’s Peter’s favorite,” Dick explained. “A Long Dark Night in Hollywood.”
As the door closed, Lexi heard Broullard ask, “Don’t you die at the end of that one?”
Joseph looked at Lexi. “Did you find your answers in the end?”
She shrugged. “I found a problem I thought I’d already solved and answers to questions I never asked. Does that count?”
He sighed. “Ah yes, your friend Caleb. What will you do about that?”
Her brain flooded with the questions and concerns she’d stored away while dealing with Lorenzo. “I don’t know. It’s clear now, though, that he knew we would be looking for him. He created that doppelganger out of a living person merely to make them a target so they’d die instead of him. I’m not happy about that.”
“So, you simply forget him?” the man asked,
Scott answered from the kitch
en. “How can we do that? He’s trying to bring that demon across into our realm. If we don’t do something, it’ll be mayhem. But if we pursue him, we’ll take on the whole of Kindred. There are only four of us.”
Joseph stood and picked his staff up. “I think you’ll find, when the time comes, that there will be many more than four of you.”
Lexi met his eyes. “I hope so.”
He patted her on the shoulder. “Before you go, you should take a ride on the Creole Queen paddlewheel boat. Try the gumbo and listen to a jazz band play on the Mississippi.”
“Maybe we’ll do that.” She frowned when she realized he had taken Delphine’s ring out and held it in his hand. “Will it be complicated? Drawing the spirit out?”
“No. I have everything I need. I could do it here. Scott, would you like to help?”
“Sure.” The young sorcerer was always excited by new magic.
“Can you clear a space over there?” Joseph pulled a pouch from his pocket.
Scott moved a table to the side of the room and the other man told him to cup his hands. “We need a circle—big enough for the ring, is all.”
The young man watched the particles pour into his hand from the pouch. “What is that? Sand?”
“It’s cornmeal.”
He allowed the cornmeal to pour slowly out of his hand in the vague shape of a circle but didn’t look happy with the result. “It’s not a very good circle. Would you like me to do it again?”
Joseph chuckled. “No, it will suffice.” He passed the ring to Scott, who placed it inside the circle and sat on the floor beside it, not wanting to miss a thing.
The other man chanted and twisted his staff so the bones on strings clattered against it. The sorcerer’s gaze on the ring was almost hypnotic and his face moved closer until his nose was barely outside the circle.
The chanting ceased and there was silence for two seconds before the staff pounded onto the ring and shattered it.
Scott’s entire body left the floor as he hurtled away. “Jesus!”
Joseph chuckled. “The ring merely needed to be destroyed.”
“So, what was all the ritual stuff for?” The sorcerer had his hand over his chest.
The old man beamed. “Fun.”
Lexi exhaled a sharp breath. “Well, I could have destroyed it.”
The old voodoo priest’s eyes glittered. “Where’s the fun in that?”
She grinned as Scott scraped the metal and stone up.
“Joseph, you are a funny, funny man.” He held the pieces of the ring out, but the other man was nowhere to be seen.
He shrugged, stood, and threw the pieces of jewelry into the trash before he headed to the door.
Lexi folded her arms. “Where are you going?”
“To watch the movie.” He pointed at the door.
“And the cornmeal you sprinkled all over the floor will clean itself up, will it?”
Scott looked at the mess and then at her. “Yes.” He clicked his fingers and it was gone.
“Smartass.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
“So you won’t do anything about the doppelgänger?” Dick’s eyebrow was raised in surprise.
“What’s the point? It’s not like she’s stolen my life. She’s wearing my face, yes, but that wasn’t her doing—or, most likely, the person she was before. Why even tell her what she is? She has her life and I have mine. I think it’s best if I simply leave. We still have Caleb to deal with.” Lexi, Scott, and Dick looked out from the deck of the Creole Queen. A long drive awaited them but for now, she felt they deserved a few hours R and R.
The paddle began to turn, the jazz band struck up, and the boat glided through the water.
A handful of people stood on the shore and waved but mostly, they continued with their day.
Scott turned to Dick. “What about you? Do you regret day-walking now? It’s all anyone’s talking about.”
He raised a finger in the air. “But they’re all talking about a witch and a spell pouch. You’re off the hook. I think it’s worked out rather well.”
Lexi turned and leaned her back against the rail. “I wonder if things will settle here now that New Orleans is two vampire clans lighter.”
The vampire raised an eyebrow. “Pfft! Almost half of the Quarter is up for grabs. I think it’s a good time to get out of town.” He pointed along the boat. “Unless I’m very much mistaken, I think the bar’s this way.” He wandered in that direction.
She turned to look at the shore again.
Scott did the same. “When is Dolores expecting us in Charlotte?”
“Not for another—” She froze as she found herself looking into what seemed to be her own eyes. It was Alice. Her hair was the same color and her build identical. The only differences were the angry scars raked across her face. The doppelgänger stared at her with wide, horror-filled eyes.
Scott spun quickly. “I’ll speak to her.” He materialized beside the woman and opened his mouth to speak.
The next moments for Lexi were like watching herself but it all happened much faster.
Before her friend seemed to have managed a single word, Alice acted defensively. She swept her hand across her thigh, exactly where Lexi’s dimensional pocket was located. A glint in her hand preceded a swipe. The woman looked quickly at her before she raced away and left Scott alone. His mouth shaped into an O and his eyes were wide as a bloom of red appeared on the chest of his white t-shirt. He stumbled and his gaze sought hers as he fell. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing emerged.
Pain and fear surged through the empathetic link and she looked around. The boat, the shore, and the distance all seemed impossible.
I have to be there.
In the next moment, she was. She wobbled to her knees and vomited. Lexi stumbled to her feet a few feet away from him, his agony intense through the empathetic link of their blood bond.
Lexi dropped to her knees and tears streamed down her face as bubbles of blood came from his mouth. A hand caught hers and she looked at Dick, who had appeared beside her. He was soaking wet from the waist down. She realized he wasn’t holding her hand. Instead, he held her arm out, his expression compelling. She looked at the scar and recognized the presence of the white magic. She still had magic? Shit!
Quickly, she put her hand over her friend’s chest. Sensing the hole in his heart, she poured out her desire for it to be healed.
The vampire eased her back by her shoulders. “His heart’s beating. I think he’ll be okay.”
She stood and glowered in the direction in which Alice had disappeared. “Make sure I don’t lose him,” she told Dick coldly.
“How am I supposed to—”
“You know what I’m saying. I will not lose him.”
He nodded once and prepared to bite into his own wrist.
Lexi ran after the doppelgänger. She’d intended to leave her alone but now, she would crush her. Fury fueled her pace but the area was deserted. She couldn’t know if her quarry had continued in the same direction or turned off so she chose the direction that made the most sense to her.
As she ran past a building near the tracks, the woman lurched out with a knife in her hand. She had half-expected it as it was what she’d have done. Unfortunately, that was where the similarities ended. She mostly managed to dodge the knife, but it sliced her arm before she kicked it from the assailant’s hand. The girl swept a hand across her vest and another one appeared. Lexi did the same.
Her adversary blurred as she moved quickly to attack again. The speed was shocking. It was like fighting a vampire except they always tried to bite when they fought and were predictable. Alice wasn’t. Without warning, she flicked the blade at her. She ducked her head and felt the sharp sting along the edge of her ear. The woman had cut her twice now.
Alice didn’t retrieve another blade but somehow looked more dangerous, crouched as she was like a shifter about to turn. She flicked a shuriken and it bit into Lexi’s shoulder as she twiste
d to avoid it. Before she could regain her balance, her opponent picked her up and hurled her through a window in the side of the building. She landed in what looked like an abandoned workshop.
The woman stood outside and glared at her where she lay dazed. “Why would anyone make such a weak doppelgänger of me? What’s the point?” She vaulted through the window but stopped and shook her head as though dizzy, then continued toward Lexi and dragged her onto her knees by the hair. The familiar sound of the button being pulled from the vest indicated the release of the garroting wire. She tensed, then froze as she heard the unmistakable squeal as the wire coiled in again. Alice had released it and stumbled into the back of her.
“What have you…done to me?” She sounded suddenly exhausted, which made no sense at all. She hadn’t done anything to the girl…yet.
Lexi felt suddenly powerful. “Scott only wanted to talk to you, Alice. You almost killed him.”
“It’s Alicia.”
Acting on pure adrenaline, she grabbed the woman and flung her the length of the room. She bulldozed into a row of cupboard doors and splintered them.
Alicia scrambled behind a row of desks, her breathing labored.
Lexi drew her katana and scraped it along the worktops as she walked along chanting, “Alicia, Alicia, not gonna miss ya.”
Where did that come from?
“What?”
Lexi leapt over the desk and swung her fist into the woman’s head to leave her dazed. She elbowed her in the face and was amazed to see her slide across the floor and impact the wall behind with extreme force. Driven by cold anger, she grasped the girl by the vest and punched her repeatedly in the face. The more she did it, the stronger she felt. She was starting to enjoy this and hadn’t felt this strong since— A vision of herself holding Lorenzo by the throat came to her. She stopped, let go of Alicia’s vest, and grimaced when the girl fell.
Breathing hard, she drew herself tall and looked at the doppelgänger. The face so eerily her own was slick with blood.
How many times did I hit her?
As she dropped to her knees, she drew the katana from her pocket. It was time to simply finish this and get the job done. “I intended to simply leave town. You brought this on yourself.” She wasn’t even sure the girl was conscious as she spoke to her.