Over and over, I was dunked. I could hear Penny cursing, and I mentally cursed with her. It wouldn’t be long before my foot was just amputated with a mighty tear of the gator’s jaws. Fatigue set in, and my hand slipped. Only my fingertips held me back from certain death. A splash sounded beside me, and I went under again. My fingers released their hold, and I twisted around to try and get my remaining knife. Maybe I could stab the critter in the eye.
But then the gator let go and I popped up to the surface. Someone got their hands under my arms and dragged me upward, and I blinked up, not really sure who I was going to see, but I wasn’t expecting a swath of long blonde hair.
“Suzy?” I blinked up at the siren, who had a fierce snarl etched onto her pretty face. “How did you stop it?”
“Hey, I’m a swamp siren,” She grinned suddenly. “Gators are my jam. And you looked like you weren’t enjoying the whole ‘grab you by the feet and drag you under’ scene.”
Indeed, there was no more movement in the water as if the alligators were suddenly cowering—dead or not, they reacted to her magic. Suzy helped me to my feet, her power rolling out around her in waves. Weirdly enough, my ankle was not as bad as I’d figured it would be.
Thank all that was holy my leather pants and the boots I’d bought from Gerry were indeed the best of the best, because they’d just saved my ass. Or, in this case, my foot and leg. “You rock, Suze.”
“Of course, I do. Now let’s get us all the hell out of here. Eric has Charlotte out, and they’ll be back at the safe house in no time baking us cookies,” She dragged me up, and I wobbled forward. Okay, so maybe my ankle wasn’t in tip-top shape.
Hobbling as much as Penny now, I followed Suzy. Penny was waiting about twenty feet out of the water. Jacob, Missy, and Louis came up behind us, and I shot them a look. Jacob shrugged. “There were steps leading down here.”
Missy shook her head at me. “You could have killed Penny, you fool of a girl!”
“And you didn’t think to come help us?” I asked.
“Happened too fast,” Louis said, his voice nothing like that of the snotty, overconfident Frenchman I’d first met. “It all happened too fast.”
Fair enough, I’d give him that. “Yeah, I know. Let’s go.”
Suzy led us away from the water, and I found myself twisting around looking for Robert, who’d disappeared after my fall. I wanted to stop and check for him, but ultimately he was right. He was already dead, so what harm could come to him?
Oh, that was not the question to ask.
“Why did you come this way?” Suzy asked as she led us into a tunnel to the right. “I told that ex of yours to watch out for the cliff and stay to the right.”
I stiffened. “He’s my ex for a reason, and I’d kill him myself if I could.”
We were headed up a slope now, which meant we were nearing the surface at least. Missy walked with her back ramrod straight and stared straight ahead as if this was nothing to her. Penny was breathing hard, and I shot Jacob a look. He reached out and let her lean on him, and I leaned on Louis. Not because I was weak, but because I was pissed.
“You figured you’d butter that asshole up with the fairy cross, didn’t you?” I asked him.
Louis stiffened. He tried to shake me off, but I clamped my fingers around his skinny arms. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Ah, there was the stiff, overconfident Frenchman.
I snorted. “Please. Eammon said you were gone, and I saw what you had hidden under your shirt. Did he not like it? Is that why you ended up on his bad side?”
Louis stared straight ahead toward the exit of the ride, where the first hints of daylight shined in. Maybe he was considering the wisdom of making a run for it.
Jacob snapped his fingers and pointed back at him. “You thought to ingratiate yourself with someone more powerful? You told me you’d found a new necromancer here to join our league!”
Oh, Louis was in trouble now. I just grinned at him, and he glared at me. “Je te deteste.”
“Yeah, back at you.” I smiled. “You were always slimy and useless.”
Jacob let go of Penny, his face red, and came at Louis. “You drew me into a trap that this sentinel has saved me from! A sentinel!”
Wait, what was this? Was I hearing what I thought I was hearing?
“Is that what I am? What the hell does that mean?” I spluttered out as we reached the end of the tunnel.
Sentinel, like a guardian of some sort? I’d never heard the term or read about it in Gran’s book. It seemed strange that Jacob had just spilled the information to me, after everyone in my life had been so careful not to tell me anything . . . almost like they couldn’t.
I bumped into Suzy, who’d stopped in her tracks.
I looked past her and swallowed hard, all the questions I’d had on the tip of my tongue gone.
You’d think it would be the necromancer, the witches, or even more alligators. But you’d be wrong.
Marge and her weirdo husband, Homer, stood across from us, shadowed in the light growing in the east. Alan stood next to him on one side, and Robert was on his knees on the other. He was back in his skeletal form, icy blue eyes gone.
“You did good,” Marge said to Alan. “You even managed to bring me this one.” She patted Robert on the head as though he were a dog. “For that I’ll free you from your ex, as promised, and give you a new body.” As bad as it was to see Robert on his knees, swaying from side to side, it was worse to realize that Alan had betrayed me.
Again.
And I’d walked right into it.
She snapped her fingers, and Alan jerked hard, disappearing. Another snap of her fingers, and a tall male body stepped forward, touching itself, running fingers over the partially stitched mouth. “I’m . . . alive?” he muffled.
Holy shit, she’d stuffed Alan into a new body, for real.
That wasn’t what truly held my attention though. The sound of shuffling feet, clunking bones, and creaking metal could be heard all around the exit. Bodies emerged from the shadows, bodies that had their mouths sewn shut and their eyes stitched open wide. Staring, flicking in every direction as if they couldn’t believe what had been done to them even while they obeyed the commands of a voodoo priestess.
Hell, I couldn’t believe it. I knew in my gut what we were looking at as they shuffled toward us.
If I were a betting woman, I’d say these were the tonton macoutes. These were what had killed my Gran, my parents, and Alan.
Jacob whispered a prayer. “Mother of God, save us from this madness.”
“I’d guess she’s busy right now,” I muttered. “Any ideas?”
He shook his head. “None. This is the darkest of the arts, to trap souls inside the dead.”
I stared at Marge. “You killed my gran?”
She shook her head. “No. And I didn’t kill your ex, or your parents.” She smiled and spread her hands wide. I was going to guess that she was working on semantics. She raised the tonton macoutes, but she herself hadn’t killed Gran or Alan or my parents.
“So you’re just going to kill us now?” I pushed past Suzy so I was in front of the gang, limping to take the lead. “I mean, you seemed to like me just fine when I met you earlier. I thought we were getting along.”
“Money talks. You know how that is, being a bounty hunter and all.” She smiled as she put her hands on her enormous hips. “You see, me and Homer, we follow the money. It isn’t personal. The job ain’t to kill you, but I will if you make me.”
I nodded. “Fair enough, but what exactly were you hired to do?”
She tipped her chin toward our group, still smiling. Easy to smile when you had the upper hand. “Why don’t you ask your little french fry there? He be the one to hire us on behalf of his boss.”
Louis tried to shrink away from me, but I grabbed him and pulled him around to face me. “What are all the goals here, Louis? Death? Dismemberment?”
His throat bobbed. “He wants . . .he wan
ts you to take him to your gran’s spirit. After that, he’ll kill you himself. If he can.”
I pursed my lips and then looked at Penny. Her eyes were inscrutable in the semi-darkness, but I wanted to believe she was telling me to go with my gut. She leaned heavily on the cane, which she remarkably still had in her hands.
Missy shook her head. “This is a game to them, and we are losing, Breena.”
From behind us in the tunnel of the ride came the low laugh of a woman and the Coven of Darkness pushed us farther out into the light. Trapped between tonton macoutes on one side and witches on the other, I did the only thing I could.
I made a deal with the devil himself.
Who took that moment to step out from behind Marge and Homer.
25
“Okay, here’s the deal.” I still had Louis in my grip as I stared down the necromancer who’d caused this hot mess. I noticed he’d pulled my knife out of his face, because nothing was jutting out of the dark hood, but it obviously hadn’t done any lasting harm. “First, Jacob, I saved your bacon, right?”
Jacob startled. “Not yet—”
I waved a hand at him. “I’m about to. You clear my name back in Savannah. Make sure it’s safe for me to go home after this—I mean, assuming I make it out alive.” Yeah, that little caveat was sitting on my shoulders. I went on. “Officer Burke will help if you need a human on the inside.” Guessing, I was guessing, but I suspected her suspension had been lifted as soon as I left town. “But I’d think the council has enough firepower to take care of it, right? Seeing as they were behind my death sentence?” Another guess.
He locked eyes with me and then slowly nodded. “You have my word, Sentinel, that I will do all I can. I . . .was one of those who was on the fence. I believe the numbers will be in your favor now.”
Sentinel, there was that word again. I would circle back to it, see if I could find it in Gran’s spell book after this was all over, assuming again that it ended in our favor. And yeah, I wanted to think it would. I had to. Still, I was grateful that Charlotte was out of this mess.
I could almost feel Suzy itching to fight, and I found myself laying a hand on her shoulder. What if the orgy she unleashed on them involved us too? I didn’t want to tell her I didn’t trust her abilities yet. Look at what Corb had done, or almost done, and he was way more experienced than her.
“Easy, Suze, easy.”
She gave a tight nod, which bobbed her high ponytail.
“Okay, so Jacob, you have your marching orders.” I said and faced the black-robed necro. “The rest of my friends will go free, and you won’t follow them.” I paused and let the rest of my words rush out of my mouth. “I will take you to my gran. Seeing as you can’t do it on your own.” No doubt this was why Marge and Homer had been hired. Extra muscle to force me to do what the necro wanted.
The tonton macoutes to set the fear of God into us.
The necromancer nodded, and his voice growled, “Let it be done. They may go.”
“What?” Beth’s voice cut through the air as she strode up to grab Penny by the arm. “That wasn’t the deal. We get my great-aunt.”
Penny spun around and whacked her niece on top of the head with her cane, dropping her to the ground in a crumpled pile of limbs. “Child, you do not know who you are messing with. Shut your fool mouth!”
Missy laughed, her glee a little inappropriate for the moment in my opinion. “Oh, I would watch that over and over again if I could.”
Of course, she would. She was just that sadistic.
My brows shot up, but I didn’t move because I sensed the wrong move would set everyone scrambling for weapons and magic, and with this much firepower around me, I knew we were outmatched and outgunned.
Marge and Homer watched me closely. I locked eyes with the big woman, and she smiled, not unkindly, and gave a shrug as if to say this was just life. It truly wasn’t personal.
“We still get paid,” Homer whined. “Right? Same as last time?” Marge grabbed his shoulder, almost pushing him into the ground.
So this wasn’t the first time he’d borrowed the tonton macoutes. Motherducker.
“Of course, take your final payment and begone,” the necromancer growled. He flicked his hands, and the tonton macoutes turned away from us and advanced on Marge and Homer.
Apparently they weren’t getting the payment they thought.
“Don’t you cross me! This was a deal!” Marge yelled and the necro just laughed.
“I will do as I wish,” He growled and the tonton macoutes moved faster toward their maker.
Marge shouted a few words that felt like they held power, but it wasn’t enough to stop the sudden horde being pushed by the necro. She and Homer spun and ran as the voodoo dead followed, picking up speed.
The necromancer was strong enough to turn a voodoo witch’s creations on her?
So that was why she’d denied responsibility for killing my loved ones. The necro had taken the tonton macoutes and used them as his own personal army. She’d damn well rented them out to him!
I swallowed hard.
Marge was dragging Alan along by the arm of his new body, and he held his free hand out to me and screaming, “Bree, help me!”
“Not this time, Alan. You made your bed, you can sleep in it,” I said. I didn’t know what would become of him, but in that moment, it was hard to care. The last of the bonds binding us had been broken.
Robert stayed where he had been kneeling across from me, rocking side to side. Waiting.
One of the other coven members shot forward and scooped up Beth, dragging her back into the darkness of the tunnel behind us. They were clearly beating a retreat now that we’d been cornered. Penny watched them go, sorrow written clearly on her face. “Another time,” she said. “I will save her another time.”
Missy sniffed and I turned to her, only then noticing what she held in her arms.
Gran’s spell book. Mother-ducking-witch! I glared at her, and she smiled at me, a big, wide smile, as she tapped the cover of the book. And then she turned and walked away. “Nice seeing you all.”
Penny gasped, but I was not surprised in the least. Missy put the bitch in witch.
She hadn’t come to help us, but to follow Gran’s spell book and get it for herself. And when I’d hip-checked her in the dark, she’d taken her chance and snagged it from me.
I just couldn’t be surprised anymore.
The necromancer stood in front of me, waiting. Time to relent to the inevitable: there would be some sort of showdown between the two of us.
I pushed Suzy gently away from me. “Get the others out of here.” I looked her in the eye, trying to will her to understand that I wanted her to follow at a distance. I knew I was outmatched with the necro. I couldn’t do this on my own.
But would my eye charades communicate that?
“We’ll be right behind,” she whispered as she helped Penny step to the side, Jacob following them. He paused next to me and put a hand to my shoulder.
“I do not know what he searches for, but it will not come to any good if he gets it. Fight him with all you have, Bree.”
As if I didn’t know that.
“You.” The necromancer pointed at Louis before he could so much as take a step away from me. “You will also come with us.”
We both groaned at the same time, most likely for different reasons. I, because of all the people who could have come with us, Louis was the least likely to be of any help to me. I’m sure Louis just didn’t want to get killed. “Seriously? Him?”
“As you say, he is less than useless to anyone.” The necromancer laughed. “So he will come and bear witness to this historic moment.”
He snapped his fingers, and Louis lurched to his feet as if pulled from a string at the top of his head. Then his legs, stiff and stick-like, bobbed into action.
“Je peux encore vous aider!” Louis said. I didn’t have enough French in my repertoire to know what he said, but I could guess he was doi
ng some sort of begging. Something about aiding or helping the necro, no doubt.
When he got close enough to the necromancer, the black-robed figure put a very pale, almost gray-skinned hand on him, clamping down hard on his upper arm. They looked more like claws than fingers, and Louis groaned and spoke softly, this time without his accent.
“Come, we will go now,” Louis whispered.
Robert swayed to his feet, and the necromancer threw out a hand, stopping him with just that one move. Robert swayed harder. “Friend. Friend!”
My throat tightened. “It’ll be okay, Robert.”
He let out a low groan as if he knew that was not the case, same as me. But I refused to give up on the small spark of hope inside me that said it would somehow work out, even though dread filled me up to my damn eyeballs.
And just like that, it was the three of us, me with one powerhouse and one useless necromancer.
“You will lead,” the necromancer said.
I sighed and limped out in front of him. “You got a name? Because ‘robed-up dummy’ seems like a lot of words to my tired brain right now.” Mostly I was hoping to figure him out a bit, see if he had some weakness I could exploit.
The pause was long, as if he were weighing what he wanted to say. “You may call me Clovis.”
I stopped and looked at him, finally getting a good glance at what was inside his hood. The light was dim, but there was enough for me to see his gaunt face with its tight, sallow skin and strange eyes. I could see they were black, like a raven’s wing, but they glittered with many colors.
His face was not truly . . . human.
I made my mouth move even as fear filled me. “If I were going to pick a name, I’d pick one a duck ton better than Clovis. If you were a kid, you’d get picked on for that name. Bogus Clovis. Something like that.”
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