"You wear de protection from de Witch Woman. You special. But you not get in my way."
"Wait—" Crwys put his hand on the glass and stared at the dead eyes. "You're right, I don't understand. Tell me. I need to know who is trying to kill my wife. Who…who did this to you? Why did they kill those people?"
"A stupid man. A grieving man. Dis Cheval is powerful, and it is pure. It will serve my vengeance." Solomon—or the body of Solomon—stepped back.
Crwys slammed both hands on the glass. "Tell me who is trying to kill my wife! What for?"
Solomon leaned his head to one shoulder. His face changed and it was no longer Solomon's, but a painted visage of a skull. "Dunt get in my way, Dragon. I ride dis Cheval out to give deese people a proper burial. Papa Ghede will take dem at de crossroads. You will not stop dis. But as for your wife, seek vengeance on de child. He seeks to bring what cannot be brought back, tru ye dead womb." Solomon—Samedi—laughed. "But it not stop dere. The real power be hidden. And it belong to me."
Crwys lowered his arms and stepped back. His jaw hung open as he watched Solomon…no, Baron Samedi…pivot and walk through the back wall of the morgue as if he were nothing more than a ghost.
It was as if someone had stopped a film and then restarted it as people yelled out, called for someone to find the bastard. Some asked what happened. Some said they thought they saw him go into a fit. There was sea of movement all around Crwys, but he remained where he was as the Loa's words sunk in.
"Crwys?" Levi's voice was soft beside him. "What happened? It was like…everything stopped. Time stopped."
Crwys finally looked away from the bloodied window as the police got the door open and flooded into the carnage-covered room. He looked at Levi, then looked past him. “Where’s Quan?”
Levi looked around them as well. “I don’t know. He was here. You think seeing this was too much?”
“Might be. Yeah, his mom dealt with this kind of thing, but he might not be ready.” Crwys looked at Levi. "Whoever is doing this had it wrong. The rituals. He had parts of it right, and parts wrong. It’s like he knows just enough to be dangerous."
"What are you talking about?"
"Baron Samedi. He was pulled apart by those rituals, the murders, the effigies. Solomon tried to tell us. That the Baron was in too many pieces. Brave said the Baron wasn't in his world anymore. Because he'd been ripped apart."
Levi licked his lips and put his hands on his face. He leaned in close. "Are you telling me whoever this bastard is, was able to put pieces of a Loa into those dead bodies?"
"Yes."
"And Solomon just put Baron Samedi back together." He pointed at the window, but Crwys knew he meant the carnage beyond. "With those body parts. Internal organs."
"Yes."
"Crwys…"
"He spoke to me. He's in Solomon, Levi. And he's going after whoever did this."
"Who?" Levi held out his hands.
Crwys pulled his phone from his back pocket and dialed a number. "I don’t know. Whoever they are, they’re in grief, and they want to bring someone back from the dead and do it through Sam’s womb. Through our baby.”
“That’s crazy.”
“And the only person I know who’s suddenly shown back up and lost someone he’d want to bring back, is Robin Tremere.”
FOURTEEN
I am…was….am again, an avid TV watcher. I love dramas, and I like sit-coms too. But fighting evil as an Arcane Witch had sort of put the kibosh on me enjoying a lot of TV for a very long time. So when I lost my magic, the TV became my friend and I binged on series like Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, and Empire. I also fell in love with The Gilmore Girls and this other one I can't remember now because it got so over the top and I had to say enough!
I also noticed none of them had magic in them, or anything remotely related to the supernatural. Though I really wanted to watch the show, Supernatural, I just couldn't get past the too-close-to-home nature of it.
But if there was one thing they all shared, it was high drama. And a few moments I got on Grey's Anatomy nailed it for me. Like…when a huge accident would happen and there's that one gravely injured mother who says, "Save my baby!"
Up until twenty-four hours ago I would have rolled my eyes.
Now?
It was like my whole life had done a one-eighty on me, and I was holding onto the reins for dear life. I'd sort of come to grips with the idea that I was pregnant. So the pill doesn't always work. There were statistics, and given my luck, I was in that small percentage of "Whups!" The doctor even said so.
And I was thinking okay, so I have gestational diabetes…I can put off sugar for nine months, fewer given the rate of a baby Dragon's obvious growth.
But what I couldn't wrap my head around was that the fact that I didn't have a fetus in my uterus. Well, I did, but that fetus was encased in a shell. An egg.
I had an egg growing inside my uterus, where a baby should be.
How fucked up was that?!
Lady of the Darksome Realms!! What in the HELL had I done to deserve this kind of ridiculousness? It was bad enough I'd given away my magic so I could stay alive and be with the man I loved. But seriously?
Seriously?
An EGG?!
There just weren't enough jokes written about this. And now I was bleeding inside because the egg was growing too fast. Well, it was growing just fine if a Dragon were having it ‘cause Tas said baby Dragons spend six months growing inside the egg.
And the mama Dragon only had it inside of her for a few days before she made a nest (which explained my sudden need to clean these past few weeks) and pooped them out. Imagine my horror when I thought about having more than one!
Tas referred to a chicken having multiples and that Dragons, as far as she knew, had one at a time. Because one was enough.
I'd sort of gathered that having children wasn't a priority for Tas. That, or she already had babies somewhere and she ran away screaming.
Ever since I woke up from whatever drugs Arden's nurse gave me, all I could think about was losing this child. Even though it was in an egg, it was still mine and Crwys's. I could remember the look on his face, the sheer joy, and then the panic when I started hurting.
Of all the people in this world, he was the one I never wanted to hurt. Ever. But it seemed like it was inevitable.
Arden's doctor, a very nice lady named Hecate (I think she should rethink that Craft name ‘cause…ooh, no), had already plotted out the best way to remove the egg and was going to assist Tas, extracting it much like a C-section would be performed. The only problem was that the egg kept growing. Those cramps I had were signs the thing was expanding. If it got too big, it was going to rip through me and there wouldn't be anything any of them could do for me, or for the baby.
But she also had to wait for me to stop hemorrhaging. I drank a few of Arden’s potions, which were herbs and teas, all natural remedies. Which, after two hours, seemed to be working. I was downstairs now, sitting up in the parlor. I was being moved in stages. The operating area had been set up in the basement (which brought with it all sorts of nightmare images in my head), and they needed to get me down there. Lifting me had not been an option ‘cause…just no.
So I'd actually stood and walked down the stairs. I was shaking when I reached the bottom, but after an hour in the chair, there had been no more cramps and no more signs of blood. So, it could be that I'd be taking that next flight of stairs soon.
I was sitting there with the TV on, remote in one hand and nothing else. I hadn't eaten and they didn't want me to. Not before surgery. They were also waiting on the doctor to get back. Hecate had to run to the Quarter to take care of a patient at Tulane. Yay for cell phones. I had no idea where Tas was. I hadn't seen her.
Dharma had been in the room with me for a while, but returned to sit by Ivan's side. There'd been no change, but she filled me in with what they'd come up with…that he was trapped somewhere and trying to get back to his bod
y. So she made sure there was a closed network nearby with a password only he would know.
With dozing and having the TV on…her story sounded like science fiction.
I heard a door close nearby and looked around. "Hello?"
There wasn't an answer right away. I heard a voice, then a long bang. I jumped. That sounded like a gun.
"Hello? Who is it?"
"Name’s Quan." He came into the room, a man I’d never seen before. He was tall, and had a sort of mixed race look to him. Exotic. Longish hair tied back in a ponytail. He was dressed in nice pants and a short sleeved cotton shirt. He had a badge hanging from around his neck. “Detective Quan. And you must be Samantha Hawthorne.”
“Holliard.” I sort of smiled at him. “Nice to meet you. Do you work with Crwys?”
"Yes I do, ma'am."
"What was that noise?"
"I'm not sure. It came from downstairs. Maybe the pipes?" He smiled.
"Oh. Well. Okay. What can I do for you, Detective Quan?”
He looked around. "Crwys actually sent me to get you.” And he held up his hands when I opened my mouth to protest. “It’s okay. I know everything.” He gave me a shy smile. “My mom was Mambo Nadeen.”
“Really?” Now I was impressed. I knew Nadeen had kids, but I thought they were all living outside of New Orleans. “And you work here now?”
“Recently, yes. I came back to handle her funeral. One wake. And her followers asked me to stay. I’m not exactly sure about all the Voodoo my mother was a part of, but I was the one that asked Tulose and your husband to help me on a case I’m working. After hearing about what you did for my mother, I was happy to meet them. And now you.”
“That’s wonderful, Detective Quan. So why is it he sent you to get me?”
“Well, apparently, the doc's not going to make it here for some time because of an emergency at the hospital. Detective Damali already left. So they asked me to come get you and bring you to Tulane. Don't worry." He smiled at me. "The doc's making sure you'll be in a private room. No one will know what you're there for."
I made a face. He hadn’t mentioned Ivan or Dharma, but then again, I doubted Dharma would want to leave Ivan and there would need to be someone here just in case. "I don't know…"
"Hey, wouldn't you rather have a team of doctors and an up-to-date facility than here in a house?"
Wow. If Detective Quan knew about all of this, then Arden must trust him. But I couldn't get past a question. "So, how come I’m just meeting you?"
"Tough case." He came closer and put a finger to his lips. "Crwys didn’t want to worry you with it, not with your condition."
He had a bag in his hand, something I hadn't noticed before. He set it on the couch beside my chair and grabbed the remote, pointing it at the TV. He increased the volume.
I opened my mouth to ask him why he was doing that, but he moved to kneel in front of me and looked up at me. "I need you to close your eyes, okay?"
I read his lips more than heard him. The TV was too loud as he held up his hand, his fingers clenched over something in his palm. He looked at it. I looked at his hand. He opened his fingers and abruptly blew something in my face.
And things got a little hazy after that…then dark.
FIFTEEN
"SAM!" Ivan shouted as he sat bolt upright in the bed. Dharma shrieked and half fell, half jumped away from the computer she'd been staring at. The room had been outfitted specifically for long term care. It was a room in the basement, close to where Arden's people had prepared for Sam's surgery.
Earlier that morning Ivan had started breathing on his own, so the nurse had removed the tube and he'd coughed, opened his eyes, and then closed them again. Dharma had been waiting ever since for him to wake, to sit up, or to just do something to let her know he was still there.
She'd seen the messages on the phone and knew he was trying to communicate. As he'd done before. She had no idea why it was so hard this time. She only knew if he didn't come back, she'd find a way to go after him.
But now, as she peeled herself off the wall she was clinging to, Dharma approached her lover. He was still sitting up, staring at his hands. He breathed heavily, as if he'd just come from a run and hadn't cooled down. His hair was a spastic mess around his head and his eyes…
They were green. They weren't glowing, but they were green.
"Ivan?"
His name brought his attention to Dharma, and he stared as if he were trying to place her. Then recognition brightened his face and he grinned. "Dharma!"
"Yes…you remember me." She approached the bed. "Ivan…are you okay? Do you know where you are?"
He looked at the computer and it came to life again. The screen's images changed like they always did when he was in a system. The flashing images were fast and his eyes glowed now. "I'm at Gypsy…Gardens," he said, his voice a bit rough. "I just fixed a hole in Arden's security." Then he blinked and looked at her. "Where's Sam?"
"She's upstairs?" Dharma pointed up.
Ivan moved a bit awkwardly as he ripped off sticky electrodes and pulled tubes from his arms. Then he slid out of bed, and kept on sliding as his knees buckled and refused to support him.
Dharma dove for him and he grabbed a hold of her. He wasn't exactly a small guy, but he was thin and wiry and used her and the bed for support. "Careful. You'll hurt yourself."
"I need pants," he said as he looked around. "We have to go upstairs."
"Why?"
He looked at the computer again, and the monitor showed what looked like a recording from the front door. It showed an older man with a ponytail step out of a van in the front. He came to the door, looked at the camera, and then it went dark. The same scene began to loop around and around. "Quan was here."
"Quan?" Dharma helped him to the bed, and when she was sure he wasn't going to fall on his face, she went to a side table and dug around in a bag she'd brought from home. She pulled out a pair of jeans, underwear, and a t-shirt and brought them to him. "Who is that?"
"Nadeen Lefebvre’s son," he said as he got his underwear on and pulled off the gown he'd been wearing. He managed to stand up on his own two feet and hissed when his feet hit the cold concrete floor. "Socks…shoes…something…"
Dharma stood in amazement as her lover put his shoes on, then looked at her. "What?"
"Asshole!"
He held out his hands. "What?"
"You scare the crap out of me for twenty-four hours, hooked up to a machine, not breathing right, and now you're up and running around looking for Sam?" She was really trying to hold it together here and not be the jealous girlfriend, but that was getting harder to do by the minute. Her shift in emotions was happening too fast, and though she was happy he was up and talking and moving…
Ivan held his arms out to her as he leaned against the bed with the side of his thigh. She went into those arms and melted there. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that. And I can't help that I worry for Samantha."
"I know. I just…my emotions with you switch too fast. I need time to adjust."
"Normally I'd do something extraordinary, like take you out for dinner, or pull you into bed with me and watch old movies…among other things. But my best friend is in trouble, babe. Big trouble."
She pulled back and looked up at him. "Do you know what's going on?"
"Yeah, I do. And it's fucked up." He put his hand in hers. "So, please get me out of this basement and upstairs so I can check on Sam."
But Sam wasn't in the house. Dharma was able to move about faster and found two of Arden's coven members not moving in the kitchen. She started toward them, and then saw the bullet wounds in their chests and the blood spattered against the wall. "Ivan!"
"I'm right here. I see them," he said as she turned and ran into him. "I'm contacting Arden now. Or trying to. Quan’s hitting this house with that damn attack. Guy’s got a master’s in cyber security."
"Quan’s attacking…what are you talking about? How did Nadeen’s s
on use cyber security?"
"It's how he was able to keep me. The simplest way I can explain it—you know about the DDoS?"
She nodded.
"Well, once I was in Cyberspace, the bastard used my body as a server. I didn't know it was possible, but he actually kept me from accessing my body by barraging it with information. And he was doing it through Wi-Fi. It was coming through the apartment, in the hospital at Tulane, but it finally stopped once we got here because Jack helped me set up precautions for that. Decoy servers for such attacks." When she made a face at him, he said, "Putting that computer in the room with me was brilliant because it's not online. I could jump access to it and then get back to my body. I'll explain it again later. But right now, we have to get far enough away from here to get some kind of message to Arden, or even better, to Crwys."
"Wait…where is Tas? She's the one that's supposed to operate on Sam."
He closed his eyes and Dharma noticed the camera in the corner moving. He sighed and opened his eyes. "She's not here. Did she get called away?"
"I don't know. But I've got my car," Dharma said as she moved to the front and grabbed her keys from a side table, as well as her purse. "Let's go."
Dharma floored her Gremlin—or as close to flooring as one could get in the classic wee car—once they were clear of the estate gates. Ivan sat in the passenger seat, his head bowed, her cell phone in his left hand, and a crazy looking ball of flickering light hovering above his right hand.
Abruptly, he gasped and said, "Hello…can you hear me?"
Dharma squeaked when Crwys's voice came through her phone. "Ivan…damn it, Ivan, is that you?"
"Yes."
"Did you find a way to get into the phones? Where are you? Your body's—"
"I know! I'm in my body. But you have to listen to me right now. Can you?"
"Yeah—is Sam with you?"
Ivan paused, "No. Crwys, the person behind this is—"
"Robin Tremere."
"Robin…no. Not Robin Tremere. It’s Detective Quan, Mambo Nadeen’s son."
Elemental Tears: An Urban Fantasy Series (The Eldritch Files Book 8) Page 10