Dark Redemption

by Angie Sandro

  “He brought it on himself,” Landry says, reading my mind again. “He tried to kill us again. If Lainey—”

  “They’re not together. That door they went through sent them to different places. I could tell.”

  “Yeah? How?”

  “I’m a witch. I know these things.” I shrug. “If you don’t believe me, then ask what’s his name.”

  “He’s been quiet since we came out. I might’ve lost him in the void.”

  “Do you hope you lost him?”

  He rubs a finger across his scar. “I’m not so sure. I think we need him. We’re not strong enough to go against Magnolia on our own, and he’s the only lead we have on fighting the evil she’s in cahoots with.”

  I give a slight grin at the way he says the word “cahoots.” Then shiver.

  “Let’s go talk to Sophia.”

  The problem is we can’t find her in the hospital. And upon going to the Robicheaux’s, we discover she and Ferdinand have checked out of their hotel rooms. The rat bastards are on the run.

  Chapter 24

  Landry

  Reevaluate & Regroup

  Mala gives me sidelong glances during our walk from the B&B to the truck. Tension squares her shoulders, and her fists stay clenched. She holds herself like she thinks she’ll have to stop me from going off and busting shit up. Her hypervigilence continues during the drive home. It would serve her right if I swerved toward the ditch.

  Truth is, I’m too numb inside to dredge up the energy. Between watching Lainey sacrifice herself and finding out we played right into Magnolia’s trap, I can barely function through the grief. What’s worse is the fact that Mala’s emotions swing on a pendulum. One moment she’s on the verge of going to war, and the next, she acts like she doesn’t give a shit.

  Or if she does care, she doesn’t show it. Even if she was never pregnant, I feel like I’ve got a giant hole in my heart. In two days, the baby had become real for me. I’d imagined her tiny face. Her black curls. I wondered if she’d have Mala’s skin tone or a blending of hers and mine. I imagined her with Lainey’s eyes—a beautiful sapphire blue. But I didn’t really care what she looked like. Only that she was healthy. And that somehow I’d figure out how to stay alive long enough to meet her.

  Now she’s gone.

  If what Mala said was true, Lainey and Red went to different places. I hope that wherever she is, she’ll care for her niece until I get there.

  I roll down the window, needing fresh air to clear my head of the morbid thoughts. I hate being depressed. It’s a fucking waste of time and energy. What I should be doing is figuring out what happened in that room other than freeing Dena. I can’t blame paranoia for skewing my perceptions. Innocent people don’t pack up and vanish without a word.

  Exhaust fumes mingle with the cinnamon scent of dying leaves and the rotting egg stink of stagnant water from the bayou. The trees have lost most of their fall leaves, leaving them naked to the chilly wind. So far, it hasn’t gotten cold enough to bring out the sweaters. Soon.

  I glance over at my girl. Wind blows through the crack in her own window, blowing her curls around her face. She stares back with glittering eyes and gives me a tight grin.

  My gaze shifts back to the rutted road. “Are you doing okay?”

  “I’ve been better.” She leans forward to turn on the radio, scanning stations until she hits on Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain,” and sings softly under her breath. Her hand steals out to settle on my leg. It’s enough.

  The tension in my shoulders relaxes. A light rain dusts the windows. I turn on the headlights because it’s getting too dark to see the turnoff to Mala’s place without them. She sighs. Her head slides over to rest on my shoulder, and I’m finally able to put aside my pain.

  I was so excited about the idea of being a father that I never tried to see the situation from Mala’s point of view. She must’ve been scared to death. The responsibility of caring for a life, holding it safe inside her body, all the while knowing that every decision, even simple things like drinking caffeine or eating nonorganic foods, could impact the baby’s health must’ve been overwhelming.

  Everything has been moving so fast the last few days. She never had the chance to process the news. Hell, I didn’t either. Otherwise I would’ve felt the same fear and sense of responsibility she did. I’d been living a fantasy. But the reality is that Mala and I have gone from one near-death experience to another. I was delusional to think either of us was ready to have a kid.

  I park the truck in the darkened driveway. Mala throws open the door and jumps out before I pull the keys from the ignition. The door slams, and she doesn’t look back. I watch until she’s inside and then I follow. She’s sitting cross-legged on the sofa with her new laptop propped on the coffee table and her cell phone pressed to her ear.

  “I need a favor,” she says to whoever is on the line. I settle on the other end of the sofa and pretend like I’m not spying on her conversation. “Can you get access to the suitcase we left at the crime scene?” She tilts her head, holding the cell with her shoulder. “I know the suitcase itself is evidence, but not the contents.” Her jaw ticks. “Tomorrow? But I need it tonight…Fine. Okay.”

  She tosses the phone onto the sofa with a grunt.

  “Was that Deputy Dawg?” Her nod doesn’t even trigger the normal flash of jealousy at her turning to my arch rival for a favor.

  A tiny furrow forms between her eyes in the wake of my silence. “Aren’t you curious what that was about?”

  I shrug. “If you want me to know, then tell me.”

  Her lips thin into a stern line. “Sophia wanted me to have her suitcase for a reason. She said she keyed it specifically to my biometric magical signature, so it unlocks only for me.”

  Of course. Why ask the obvious? I still won’t understand. “Did she say why?”

  “She was afraid something bad would happen to her. She was trying to warn us about Magnolia without coming right out and snitching. Hell, maybe Magnolia put a spell on her so she couldn’t talk about it, or she still felt conflicted due to her loyalty to my aunt. Whatever the case, she wanted to help, but I didn’t take her seriously…”

  “You were right not to trust her. She left.” I’m too tired to figure out her hidden motives. I kick my right leg up on the cushions and slide it behind Mala’s back, leaving the other on the ground. I lay my head on the sofa’s arm and close my eye, annoyed by the tick under my eyelid. It started in the truck

  She clears her throat. “Sophia talked about a Purple Emperor butterfly. How it’s drawn to the dead.” The keys clack as she types, hypnotic. She shakes my leg. “Hey, wake up.”

  I yawn. “I’m just resting my eye.”

  “You were snoring.”

  I grab the sofa’s back and pull myself upright. My muscles feel tight, and I roll my shoulders until I get a loud crack. Mala winces. She hates the sound. Says it makes her think of breaking bones.

  Mala buries her face in the crook of her arm. “Okay, check this out. Does it look familiar?” She hands the laptop to me. On the screen is an image of a butterfly on a toad carcass. Apatura iris.

  I run my finger across the wings on the screen. “Is this the same type of butterfly I saw swarming over the bodies”—and crawling inside your mouth—“in the spirit trap?”

  “Nope. Sophia said what we saw on the other side is its cousin—a soul eater.” She places the laptop back on the coffee table. Her fingers fly faster and faster, pounding on the keys.

  “Enough,” I say, sliding it from beneath her hands. “You’re gonna break it. And you refused to buy the warranty.”

  She throws herself against the backrest, kicking out with her foot. The table slides across the hardwood floor. “That’s ’cause warranties are a waste of money. A total scam. God, I’m so stupid,” she cries. “Why did I trust Magnolia? We knew she was working on a plan. I just didn’t think…”

  I slide across the cushion. “The whole pregnancy was hink
y in the first place. We knew that.”

  “Then why didn’t we stop her?”

  I shake my head. She’s saying the same things I’ve been thinking since we left the hospital. Only hearing them out loud makes me reevaluate how much control we had over this situation. “What could we do? We didn’t know what she planned. Still don’t.”

  “But the butterflies. The murders of those boys. It’s all connected, Landry. I know it.” She swivels to face me. “I feel so empty inside. Like a piece of my soul was stolen, eaten. Our baby’s soul.” Her red-rimmed eyes look as hard as obsidian.

  I reach over and grab her by the hips and drag her onto my lap. “As someone whose soul is being eaten by a demon, I kinda know how you feel. Question is why?”

  “Did what’s his name come back? He keeps saying he wants to help. Maybe he knows what’s going on.”

  “Are you here?” I squeeze my eye shut and probe the dark corner of my mind where the creature likes to hide. Only silence returns, and I shake my head. “Maybe Gaston knows something.”

  “Gaston, we need your help,” Mala calls, head tilting as she listens for a response. She calls a few more times, then switches to “Mama. Help.” We both scan the room and then look through the window. The rocking chairs remain still. “Mama, if you don’t come right now, I’m having sexual intercourse with Landry on your new sofa.”

  “Well, if that doesn’t get her to come running, I don’t know what will,” I say. But it doesn’t work. The house gives off an unusually quiet aura. My arms tighten around Mala. “Guess we’re alone.”

  Mala’s chest hitches like she just held in a watery hiccup. “Good, because I wasn’t joking about having sex. I need you.”

  Before my body has a chance to react to the idea that I’m finally going to get laid, her heavy weight melts in my arms as if her bones congeal, and I’m the only thing holding her together. Hot tears run down my neck as she burrows her face in the crook of my neck.

  The rawness of her grief adds to mine. I can’t hold it back anymore. I’ve suffered too much loss. Lainey and her baby. Mom. And the baby I’d somehow pinned all my hopes and dreams onto.

  Now nothing’s left, but this woman in my arms. She grounds me. Without her, I don’t know where I would be now. Lainey’s death and Mom’s betrayal almost broke me. Mala’s the one who put the pieces of my shattered heart together again.

  She tips her head back. Her wet cheeks gleam. Her fingers release their hold on my shirt and slide up my neck to curl into my hair. She draws my face down and trails tiny kisses up my cheek to my eye, then shifts around to straddle my lap, planting both knees on the sofa.

  My hands run over her shoulders, and I work the hair tie from her braid. Once loose, it only takes a few flicks to unravel her hair. I know better than to try and run my fingers through her curls. Instead I pull the mass over her shoulder. The chocolate-peppermint scent of her new conditioner fills my nose, triggering a craving deep inside.

  I trace my fingers down the smooth column of her neck, marking the territory I want to taste. Her sigh warms my cheek and then her head tilts. “I love you so much,” she whispers against my mouth.

  My lips part, but I don’t have a chance to speak as her kiss-eats my words. Her tongue searches for more, exploring the roof of my mouth with a hungry desperation that I echo. The sounds in the room fade, until all I’m aware of are the little moans she lets out as the kiss deepens.

  Her hips tilt as she shifts her weight off her knees and settles back on my lap. I lean forward, unwilling to break the kiss until she lifts her T-shirt and forces me to. I crumple the soft fabric in my fist and yank it over her head. Her greedy lips capture mine again.

  I rock forward, glad I’ve had enough practice to undo the clasp on her bra by touch. Her breasts spill free, and I groan when they rub against my T-shirt. I want to be skin to skin.

  Mala tugs on my shirt. “Take it off.”

  She works on slipping her pants off while I remove my shirt. It takes some juggling so we don’t topple off the sofa. At one point, I’m flat on my back with her lying on top of me while I kick off my pants. I can’t resist taking her earlobe into my mouth. I roll her golden ball earring over my tongue and get a giggle. My lips twitch, but I stifle my chuckle at her reaction. Instead I nip her earlobe until she flails. My hand blocks her jerking knee, which almost ends our foreplay for the night, and moves to tickle the sensitive skin behind her knee cap. She squirms, rubbing against my chest. The friction increases the heat rushing down my body.

  “You’re not helping.” She pouts, kicking the foot that still has her jeans and panties tangled around it before dropping them over the edge of the sofa.

  I grab her ankle and jerk the jeans free. “But it’s pretty funny. I tickle her one more time and then wrap my arms around her waist. I roll her sideways so she’s safely sandwiched between me and the sofa’s back. “I’m living on the edge.” I grin, falling into her sparkling eyes. “One false move from you and I hit the floor.”

  “Not happening.” Her leg hooks around my waist.

  I run my hand down the smooth skin of her thigh. Muscles flex beneath my hand. Her breathing quickens. Her breasts are warm against my chest. In this position, I can’t give them the attention they deserve. But a warm heat presses against me within easy reach of my probing fingers. Her hips arch toward my hand when my thumb grazes her clit.

  Her head falls back when I insert a finger while still rubbing her with my thumb. She’s wet. “Oh-oh, y-yes.”

  I press kisses up the arch of her neck. My fingers mimic her breathing, moving faster and faster as her climax builds. Her muscles tense around my finger.

  Her head lifts from my mouth. “Oh…it’s coming. H-hold on.”

  I hear a tearing sound. She has a condom wrapper between her teeth and spits the paper onto the floor. I rock back, teetering on the edge of the sofa while her warm hands roll the latex down my shaft. Then she guides me to her opening, and I shove inside. Her lips part with her inhale as she relaxes the muscles, then tightens them. My dick throbs. Pulsing. She quivers.

  Her leg tightens around me, holding me inside her, while I roll onto my back and settle more securely on the sofa. She wiggles, drawing a groan from me, and straddles my hips.

  Her fingernails dig into my chest. I cup her ass as she rocks, setting the pace. Her hips do a swivel move that almost brings me over before she’s ready. But she’s close.

  Her muscles spasm when she comes, squeezing around me. And I let go too. The release brings us crashing together like two freight trains colliding in a cascade of sparks and fire. I think she screams. Or maybe it’s me.

  Chapter 25

  Mala

  Everything Changes

  A patch of sun shines through golden brown and reddish leaves, hitting my eyes. The lemony floral aroma from a magnolia tree combines with Landry’s musk. That man’s pheromones cause instant arousal. I could sniff him all day long. His even breathing doesn’t change when I bury my face in his chest, savoring his unique scent, but his arms tighten around my body. The gentle thumps of his heartbeats lull me, and I drift on the verge of joining him in sleep. A nap would be the perfect end to our afternoon.

  The muscles in my thighs and arms throb. It’s nothing to the internal discomfort, but it’s a good ache compared to how I felt after leaving the doctor’s office. Landry filled the hollow emptiness I felt inside. Both the physical and emotional. He took my mind off of all the pain and fear by reminding me of the future we could have together. For this one moment, I’m content to lie in his arms and not worry about all we still have to face.

  We needed this time to reconnect. Too much drama had us on the verge of mental collapse. Waking up beside him in a quiet house, without kids yelling about missing socks or someone hogging the bathroom, meant morning sex and cooking breakfast naked. We made pancakes and scrambled eggs to avoid grease burns. And fed each other across the table like any other sappy couple. Even a morning running errands in
town didn’t have the urgency of the day before. Everything was calm. Nobody tried to kill us while we were at the market buying groceries. When we dropped by the hospital to visit Dena, I didn’t get bombarded by ghosts. Even getting kicked out of her room by her nurse because we were too loud seemed…normal.

  I snuggle closer to Landry, wishing the blanket I brought for our picnic had a bit more padding. A rock presses into my hip, but I can’t move my upper body. He holds on to me tightly as if, even in sleep, he’s afraid to let me go. I run my foot up his leg, smiling at how his hair tickles my toes.

  He groans, leg jerking.

  “Are you awake?” I whisper.

  “I am now.” His eye cracks open to show the variegated shades of gray. Seeing me staring, his lips tip in a smile. “What are you thinking about?”

  I tilt my head back. “How happy I am.”

  “Enjoying it while it lasts?” His hand trails up to brush the hair off my cheek.

  “Don’t ruin my happy fantasy with lopsided pessimism, Frog Prince.” I lightly bite the fingertip he runs across my lips. “My new motto is: Enjoy the moment.” The future is already predestined. I don’t say the last part out loud, but he knows. I learned that truth when I couldn’t save Mama. Nothing I did changed the outcome of her death vision. Part of me will always wonder if trying to change the future only makes the situation worse. Landry and I will either have a long, happy life together or we won’t. I choose to believe that we will.

  I pick a twig from his hair and twirl it between my fingers. The shadow falls across his high cheekbone. “I love this spot. I’m glad we decided to stop for a while.”

  His chest shakes from his chuckle. “Ironically, this is also Sophia’s favorite spot.”

  “How so?”

  He whispers in my ear. “She lost her virginity to Gaston here.”